Sonic Extreme: Season 1
by B. J. Williams
Summary: Post-SatAM Continuation: After Dr. Robotnik's ultimate defeat at the hands of Sonic and Sally, the freedom fighter groups had disbanded and moved on with their lives. Sonic became a drifter while Sally returned to political duties. After a year had passed, Sally calls up Sonic. Is trouble brewing in the future from the wreckage of Robotnik's tyranny? [P3S]
1. Sonic's Return: Pt 1

Sonic's Return: Pt 1

Sonic the Hedgehog was sitting on a log in the Green Hill Zone. He was still a little pudgy and still had his green eyes. He was playing his electric guitar practicing some techniques. As he was playing he saw something wrong in the solo.

"No, that's not right." Sonic said. "I think I better set it down for now."

He set down the guitar on the ground for the time being. His fingers were sore from the practicing anyways. He sat on the ground for a bit.

"It's been a year since I and the Knothole freedom fighters have taken down Dr. Robotnik; and there hasn't been any action." Sonic thought. "Sally and I have tried to get in a relationship but it didn't work out. I heard that she is currently building a new city to replace the old Metropolis zone. I wonder how it is going?" Then, at that moment, his cell phone rang. He picked it up.

"Hello?" Sonic asked.

"Hello, Sonic." The voice said.

"Oh hey, Sal." Sonic replied.

"I wanted to talk to you about some things." Sally said. "Can you come to my villa to discuss the details?"

"I tried going to Mobotropolis to find your villa the first time around and I couldn't find it." Sonic answered her.

"Oh, that was my fault. I forgot to tell you that someone else had built a Metropolis Zone. We had a lot of confusion involving Mobotropolis and Robotropolis. I decided to rename the one I run."

"What did you rename it to?"

"I renamed it to Soleanna. So, head there."

"Got it. I'll see you there." He hung up the phone and started his trek to Soleanna. He arrived in the evening at his location. Soleanna was a coastal city-state nearby a lagoon. The buildings were made with brick and concrete complete with terra-cotta tile roofing. The important buildings like the senate hall and sovereign's villa had a dome on top of it. Canals ran through some parts of the city.

"Okay, time for me to head to the villa." Sonic said to himself.

"Sonic." He heard a familiar voice say. He turned around and saw Tails. He was still his kid-like self. He was still brown and had his two tails.

"Hey Buddy. Long time no see." Sonic said as Tails ran up to him and the two hugged.

"It has." Tails replied.

"What's happened as of recent?"

"Well, you know that Rotor had took me in as an apprentice." Tails explained. "Now, I have finally completed my classes."

"That's awesome, Tails."

"Thanks, Sonic." Tails answered. "So, what's going on?"

"I came here to talk to Sal about something." Sonic said. "Do you know where the villa is?"

"Oh that's easy." Tails said. "Follow me." So, Sonic followed Tails to the villa; As they arrived, Princess Sally was waiting for them in the portico. She was dressed in a short white dress with a golden X across the front. In addition she wore long white gloves on her hands and had a golden loral wreath around her head.

"There you are." Sally said. "I've been waiting for you."

"Hey, Sal." Sonic replied.

"Come in, we have much to talk about." She stated. She turned to Tails. "You may come with us, Tails. This does involve you as well."

"Okay." Tails said. She gave a hand gesture and the two of them followed her. She took them to the garden ambulatory. There was a fountain in the center of the space. Surrounding the fountain was blue periwinkles, violets, and white jasmine flowers. The three sat down on two iron benches near the fountain. Sonic and Tails sat on one bench while Princess Sally sat on the other one.

"I remember like it was yesterday since we have defeated Dr. Robotnik." She said.

"Yep, I remember that too." Sonic replied.

"I apologize that we had to part ways after being in a relationship." She said. "I'm just so busy with reconstruction of the city and the politics involving with being a leader."

"I see." Sonic answered. "I've gotten past that. I've actually tried to start a rock band with some friends."

"Oh really." Sally said in a snarky voice. "How did that go?"

"Not too good. I'm afraid." Sonic said. "I rarely get to see them, let alone practice music with them. However I've come up with some awesome solos, want to hear?"

"No thanks." Sally responded. "Maybe some other time."

"Alright, alright." Sonic answered. "So, what is this about anyways?"

"I know that you don't have anything to do." Sally explained. "So, I've decided to form a special operations group for Mobius and I would like you to be a part of it."

"Will we still get to go on adventures like old times?"

"Yes."

"Cool. I'm in."

"Please note, I can't go with you on these adventures."

"Any of the old freedom fighters coming onto this crew?" he asked.

"Well, Rotor is now the Minister of Science and Technology." She explained. "And Antione is now the Commander-in-Chief."

"Did he finally grow a pair?" Sonic asked.

"Yes." Sally replied.

"Good." Sonic answered. "What about Bunny?"

"I'm not sure. I think she can come on the team, but I'll have to ask her." Then, Sonic turned to Tails.

"Hey, Tails." Sonic asked. "Would you like to come along?"

"I'd love to, Sonic." Tails answered.

"Alright." Sally said. "That would be good for now." She pulled out Nicole her personal gadget that connected to a main computer. "I'll just make a note on Nicole here." And he got a notification on her device. "Mhm?"

"What is it, Sal?" Sonic asked.

"It appears that Nicole has picked up something." Sally opened the notification. "Nicole has picked up a badnik transmission signal." She said in shock. The other two were shocked as well.

"I thought Dr. Robotnik was dead." Tails said.

"I'm not sure what's going on, Tails." Sally replied. "But you and Sonic have to investigate this as soon as possible."

"Where's it at, Sal?" Sonic asked.

"Let me check the origin of the signal." She said, she typed in some coding into Nicole. "It seems like it's coming from the Floating Island."

"Floating Island, got it." Sonic said. "Tails, let's go."

"Wait a minute, Sonic." Sally said grabbing on his shoulder to stop him. She continued to investigate.

"What do you mean, wait a minute?"

"We don't have all the information, Sonic." Sally explained. "This is why you wouldn't do well as a ruler or diplomat." Sonic just tapped his foot on the ground. "You're being impatient."

"I got to move, Sal." He stated.

"I got the information." Sally said. "Apparently, the floating island we were at was part of a larger chain of floating islands. And the signal is coming off of the one in the middle."

"Alright." Sonic answered with a yawn.

"You sound like you're tired." Sally said. "You probably should get some sleep."

"Fine. I'll get some sleep." Sonic stated.

"You can head out in the morning." She said. Then, she stood up. "I will guide you to your rooms."

The night came and it was an uneventful yet peaceful night. The three went to their separate rooms and went to sleep. The next morning came. Sonic was talking with Sally as they were heading to the back of the villa.

"So, you know the objective?" Sally asked Sonic.

"We are to scout the island and report back to you?" Sonic replied.

"Correct." Sally answered. "Make sure that you search it thoroughly."

"Okay."

"I, also, have given you and Tails a communicator as well."

"I get it, Sal." Sonic stated. "We'll be fine." He paused. "So, how are we going to get there?"

"You'll be taking the Freedom Stormer to go up there."

"That rickety old hang glider?"

"It worked well the first time around."

"That was to Maga in the Great Mountains." Sonic stated. "We're talking about a floating island in the sky here. We need something like…" Then, he looked onto the field and found a bright red two-seated bi-plane with white wings with red tips and it had two engines on the bottom. "Wow, now that's what I'm talking about." Sally looked at it with amazement.

"You like it, Sonic?" Tails asked coming down from the plane.

"This is waaaayy past cool." Sonic stated.

"I'm glad you like it. I gave the Freedom Stormer an upgrade."

"You call this an upgrade? This is a huge makeover."

"So, what are you going to call it?" Sally asked. "It's not really the freedom stormer anymore."

"How about the tornado?" Tails asked.

"Sounds cool to me." Sonic replied with glee. "Let's go." Tails jumped into the pilot's seat.

"Turn the propeller, Sonic." Tails said and Sonic did that and the propeller started to spin rapidly. Then, he jumped into the passenger's seat.

"WAIT!" Sally shouted.

"What is it, Sal?" Sonic asked.

"You almost forgot." She said holding up a power ring and tossed it to him. He caught it while in the seat.

"Thanks, Sal."

"Good luck, boys." Sally stated waving as the tornado flew off.

The duo had flew in the tornado into the Floating Island Chain. Tails activated the radar and tracker to the plane.

"Okay, Sonic." Tails said. "Don't do anything reckless." He looked back and saw Sonic was missing. "Sonic!?"

"WOOHOO!" Sonic shouted. Tails looked up and saw that Sonic was standing on the wings themselves.

"Sonic, what are you doing?"

"This is a lot more fun than being trapped in a seat. I can stretch my legs."

"Be careful up there, Sonic." But then, they noticed seven buzz bombers up ahead.

"Tails, Buzz Bombers!"

"I see them. HOLD ON, SONIC!" The buzz bombers began to open fire on the tornado. Tails did a barrel roll to dodge out of the way. Sonic grabbed on to the wings when this happened. Tails fired at the robots, taking down two of the bombers.

"I can't just lay down here." Sonic stated. As soon as the plane became right side up, he leapt up into the air with the power ring in hand. And he targeted a bomber struck it down and the plane came to be his platform. He did the same thing to two other buzz bombers. Tails shot down another one of them. Sonic landed back onto the Tornado again.

"Did we get them all, Sonic?" Tails asked.

"I think we got them." He answered. Then, there was a huge jerk on the plane. Sonic looked and one of the engines has been hit. Black smoke was coming out of the engine and the plane started to spin. Sonic held on.

"WE'VE BEEN HIT!"

"I KNOW THAT!" Sonic looked back. "BUZZ BOMBER, BEHIND YOU!"

"SONIC, WE'RE GOING DOWN!" The buzz bomber started to fire once again.

"HEAD TO THE ISLAND!"

"Will do." Tails said. "I have emergency landing gear." He pulled the lever for the landing gear and it broke. "Or not." The buzz bomber fired and hit the other engine. It balanced the plane again.

"BRACE YOURSELF!" Sonic shouted. The plane was right above the jungle when Tails got out of the pilot's seat with a parachute. Sonic grabbed Tails with the parachute ready. The two jumped off the plane and Tails activated the parachute and saw the plane crash in the jungle.

"So much for maiden voyage." Tails said.

"Don't get yourself down at least we know where it's at." Sonic said. He activated the communicator to Sally.

"Hey Sally?" Sonic said into the communicator as they landed.

"Hello, Sonic." Sally said. "I did get into contact with Bunny and she will be able to join the team."

"That's good, Sal." Sonic responded.

"How is the mission?"

"We made it to the island but we were attacked buzz bombers."

"Are you all right?" Sally asked, scared.

"Tails and I are fine, but the Tornado is a wreck." Sonic replied. "That Robuttnik is definitely on this island."

"Sonic, be extremely careful. The swat bots will be after you."

"Got it, Sal. We'll let you know of any updates."

"Okay, Sally out." Then, the princess deactivated the communicator.

"Let's juice, Tails." Sonic stated. "We can't stay in one spot."

"Right behind you." Tails replied.

So, they traversed through the jungle with many colorful tropical flowers and rivers. Then, they came across what appeared to be ruins of a city with a step pyramid in the center.

"Whoa, Tails." Sonic said. "Check this out."

"I see, Sonic." Tails replied.

"I bet we'll find something here." He was about to head in but Tails interrupted.

"Uh, Sonic?"

"What is it?"

"Are you getting the feeling that we're being watched?"

"Not really." Sonic answered him. "But I don't want to be either." Tails followed Sonic into the city ruins. The ruins had the buildings made of cobblestone and the rooves were beginning to have holes in them. But there were fresh structures built right among the ruins. Then, Tails noticed a flash of red from the corner of his eye and stopped.

"Sonic, I saw something moving." Tails said.

"Where?" Sonic asked.

"I'm not sure."

"Well, you're going to have to be more specific." Sonic stayed close to Tails and they walked forward. And then a door opened from beneath them. The two fell in and hit the ground how.

"Ouch." Sonic said.

"Are you alright?" Tails asked.

"I'll be fine."

"That was a heavy fall." Before they could get a grip on the situation, they were attacked from above by two metallic spider like robots with yellow and black stripes. The two spiders launched out a tangling web of steel wires and the duo wrapped up in the wires. The two struggled to get out but couldn't. The spider bots dragged them out of the pit.

"Well done, widow bots." A voice stated. Sonic and Tails looked up at him. They saw a red echidna wearing white spiked fold-back mittens and red & yellow bolted shoes. In addition, he had a leather hat encircled with crocodile teeth.

"Who the heck are you?" Sonic asked.

"The name is Knuckles." The echidna answered. "And I will be taking you in."

"There's no way you can handle me." Sonic said. Knuckles took a brown cloth, rolled it into a cloth wrap and wrapped it around his mouth.

"There, that'll shut you up." Knuckles had the widow bots take them away with him to the throne room in the palace ruins.

The throne room was decorated with crimson carpeting and purple walls. There was a desk in the end of the room with a chair behind it facing away from the door. The widow bots carried Sonic and Tails in with Knuckles walking by their side. Several smaller swat bots with lances guarded the area; the chair holding Robotnik was facing away from them.

"I have captured the prisoners like you asked me too." Knuckles said to him.

"Excellent, Knuckles." Robotnik said and Knuckles removed the cloth.

"Wait, you don't sound like Robuttnik." Sonic shouted.

"Oh, I don't?" Robotnik asked. "Well, I'll show you." The chair turned around and showed Snively grinning at the two of them. He still had his green shirt and black pants. He also had a brown cape.

"SNIVELY!?" Sonic and Tails stated at the same time in shock.

"Correct, Sonic." Snively answered. "You now know that I am the one in charge now." He paused. "And I'm glad you seen my companion, Knuckles." Knuckles nodded. "Prepare Sonic, you will be the first to witness my revenge upon you." He walked up to Sonic and yanked some quills off of Sonic's head. Sonic jerked in pain. "That was for making me bald." He walked up to a large machine on the side. "Can you tell me what this is, Sonic?" The duo looked in fear.

"That's a…" Tails said.

"Robotisizer." Snively explained. "But it works differently than the one my uncle had." He turned to Knuckles. "Knuckles, summon a roller."

"Yes, sir." He said. Then, he pushed a button opening a tube on the device. He turned and pushed a number sequence on the keypad. A roller came out to be with the audience. Then, a metal blue ball came forward. It unfolded and revealed two arms and it could stand on two iron feet. It also had a metal tail and red V-shaped head crest.

Snively pushed a button and targets came up. The roller raised its hands and used the Gatling guns to blast away the targets.

"Now, enter the tube." Snively stated. It rolled up and entered the tube; the door had shut behind it. Snively turned to the computer and opened a vial entrance. He dropped the quills into it and they entered the computer.

"We know what the roller can do and we know what you can do." Snively said chuckling. "Now, with the new 'fusion robotisizer'. I can combine whatever I want with a currently existing robot." He turned to Knuckles. "Pull the lever, Knuckles." He pulled a lever and a thing came up throwing a pie in Snively's face. "The other lever."

"Sorry." Knuckles answered.

"At least, it's raspberry pie." Snively stated. "And not elderberry."

Then, Knuckles pulled the other lever. Then, the machine activated. Electricity came from the tesla coils and energy flowed to the chamber that the roller was in. Then, smoke came from the chamber upon completion. The machine powered down.

"At last, my ultimate weapon is finally finished." Snively said. "And its all thanks to you." Then, he turned to the chamber. "Come, my child." Then, a bulky steel hedgehog with a sensor band around the head with red lights in it walked out of the chamber. "BEHOLD, MECHA SONIC!" Snively laughed as Sonic and Tails were scared now.

TO BE CONTINUED…


	2. Sonic's Return: Pt 2

Sonic's Return: Pt 2

"I'm glad that you get to see what I am capable of and the fact that it struck fear into you." Snively answered. "How does it feel knowing you have to face a robot that has the same abilities you do?" Sonic didn't answer the question. "No talking?" He paused. "Oh well, I'll get answers from you soon." He pulled a lever opening another trapdoor from beneath them and the duo fell in.

"Well, we've captured the two." Knuckles answered.

"Yes, we did Knuckles." Snively replied.

"But I didn't think that you would make a robot version of the hedgehog."

"He has been a pain in my side for a long time." The two started to walk together.

"Well, at least, the master emerald is safe."

"Yes, it will be safe in my hands." Snively hurried back to the switch.

"Wait, you're not supposed to touch the master emerald." Knuckles rebuked. "You made a promise about that."

"I apologize for the lack of memory." Snively answered. "As well as Mecha Sonic being your successor."

"WHAT!?" Snively pulled the lever and the trapdoor opened. Knuckles fell in.

"So long, Knuckles."

Sonic and Tails were in a prisoner's cell trying to get themselves untangled. They were trying for a while.

"Of only, I can reach the power ring." Sonic said. "But my hands are stuck."

"I'm trying to think of something, Sonic." Tails answered. At that moment, they heard a scream and Knuckles landed nearby them. He was extremely angry and he turned back to the doorway to the cell.

"YOU'RE GOING TO PAY FOR THIS, SNIVELY!" Knuckles shouted. "IF I EVER GET MY HANDS ON YOU, I'M GOING TO…" He couldn't finish his sentence but fell to his knees about ready to cry.

"I got it." Sonic said and he used his spin dash to break through the wires. He also freed from the tangled wires. "Now, we need a way out of the cell."

"Sonic, we have another one here." Tails said. He pointed to Knuckles.

"Oh." Sonic rolled his eyes.

"Whatever," Knuckles answered depressed. "I don't care anymore."

"Do you mind telling us what was between you and Snively?" Tails asked him.

"It all started back the day after the coup of Mobotropolis." Knuckles said.

 _A little kid Knuckle was wondering around the Robotropolis; he was hiding in the shadows of the alleyways. Snively was on investigating the alleyways with two swat bots he hacked into. He was wearing a leather hat to cover his bald spot. Then, the three spotted the echidna._

 _"Intruder alert." The swat bot said._

 _"You are under arrest." The second answered._

 _"Stop." Snively stated to them. "Stand down. I have a better idea." Snively stepped off of the travel vehicle and walked slowly to him. "I am Snively. I apologize for the intrusion."_

 _"Whatever." The echidna answered._

 _"What are you doing here?"_

 _"I was looking for some food."_

 _"Shouldn't you be back with your folks?"_

 _"I don't have any family. I'm an orphan." The echidna stated. "And those Swat Bots destroyed the orphanage under Julian."_

 _"I'm so sorry to hear that." Snively said. "I'm not going to hurt you."_

 _"Are you sure?" Knuckles said._

 _"I'm positive." Snively had taken off the hat and placed it on Knuckles' head._

 _"My name is Knuckles." The echidna replied._

"He later had adopted me." Knuckles answered. "He raised me for ten years under the nose of Robotnik and he became a father to me. I can't believe that he was stab me in the back like this. How could he?" Sonic and Tails put the hands on his shoulders.

"I'm so sorry to hear that." Sonic replied; he now felt a little guilty about not willing to listen earlier. "What did you tell him?"

"During that time, I told him about Angel Island." Knuckles continued. "It's the island we are currently on. In turn he told me stuff about this group of rebels that are causing mayhem in the Empire."

"That would be us." Sonic added. Knuckles was taken back.

"You were part of the rebellion?"

"Yeah."

"Who knew? Like it matters anyway, he also knows of the Master Emerald."

"What's the Master Emerald?" Tails asked.

"It is a large gemstone of immense power. It's what keeps the island chain afloat. Not to mention it also has seven servant chaos emeralds." He paused. "But now I fear that Snively will steal the master emerald. And it's all my fault."

"Don't feel bad, Knux." Sonic said. "We still have time."

"Alright, stand back." Knuckles said. "I'll help you out now." He ripped the bars off of the cell door. Tails and Sonic were impressed. "The master emerald is on the top of the temple."

"Okay, hold on, guys." Sonic said. Tails grabbed on to Sonic's shoulder and Knuckle's hand.

"What do you mean hold on?" Knuckles asked. Then, Sonic zoomed off with the two of them.

Meanwhile, Snively was attaching a crane pulley hook to the master emerald. His robots were finalizing the attachment so they can pack it into the airship overhead.

"We are almost completed with the extraction." A swat bot said.

"Excellent." Snively said. "Now, we can have infinite power to rebuild the Robotnik Empire. I've been waiting for this moment." He looked upon the robotisized arm of the previous Robotnik. "And I will surpass even my late uncle." Then, another one came forward.

"Sir, the prisoners escaped."

"What!?" Snively said. "They will come of the master emerald. I want the temple secured pronto."

"Yes, sir." The egg pawn stated. He turned to the megaphone. "All buzz bombers, rollers, drillers, clucks, and chimp bots. Man the battle stations."

The buzz bombers flew overhead as Sonic and the crew arrived at the base of the step pyramid temple. They began to open fire on the trio and the three took cover.

"I'll handle the buzz bombers." Sonic said as he pulled out the power ring and jumped onto the building's roof and rolled into a morph ball and hopped from one bomber to another. Knuckles continued with Tails on the ground. They encountered rollers and the rollers opened fire on them. Knuckles and Tails took cover.

"How are we going to get past this set?" Knuckles asked.

"I don't know." Tails stated. Then, a thorax from a buzz bomber fell in front of Tails. He picked it up and saw the part was still working. "I got this." Tails fired shots at the rollers taking them down as he moved from cover to cover.

"Not bad." Knuckles commented on Tails. The two continued as Sonic landed right beside them.

"You guys, okay?" Sonic asked.

"We're good." Tails replied.

"Didn't break a sweat." Knuckles answered him confidently. The trio reached the top of the temple when the crane started to lift the emerald into the airship above the temple.

"It's over, Snively." Sonic stated.

"Oh, hedgehog." Snively said. "We're getting warmed up." Clucks, Drillers, and Coconuts appeared before the trio. "Get them."

The drillers looked like humanoid tanks with drills on their noses and hands. The drillers charged forwards with their drills activated. Sonic dodged out of the way of the drills. He noticed at one point he was being flanked by two of them and the rushed forward. Sonic got out of the way and the two smashed into each other.

"You're too slow." He taunted the bots. The drillers dug into the ground. "Running away?" Then a driller sprang from the ground behind him. "Whoa." He noticed the bot behind him and barely got out of the way.

"Be careful, Sonic." Tails said.

"Same to you, buddy." Sonic replied.

The chimp bots looked like monkeys made out of computer parts. They were armed with grenades and bazookas. They were firing upon Tails who had the buzz bomber thorax. Tails dodged the grenades that were thrown at him, but he fired back at the chimp bots blowing some up.

The clucks were aviatory robots shaped like birds of prey. They were flying around Knuckles who dodged their diving attacks and grabbing them when he could and smashing them into the ground.

"Tails," Knuckles stated. "We can't let Snively win, he's going to get away with the emerald." Tails saw the crane that was lifting the emerald and fired a few shots at it. It hit the crane and it stopped lifting the crane. Knuckles grabbed one of the clucks aiming towards him and threw it at a driller trying to flank Tails. It hit straight on knocking both to the side.

"The crane!" Snively shouted. "Swat bots, get the crane operational again. We need to leave with the emerald. He, then, turned to Mecha Sonic.

"Mecha Sonic," Snively said. "Take care of the hedgehog."

"As you wish." Mecha Sonic responded. Then, he burst forward with his jets and landed in front of Sonic.

"You shall be my opponent, Sonic." He stated.

"There is only room for one Sonic and it's sure not you." Sonic replied.

"Enough talk, Sonic." The robot replied. "Have at you." Then, the two rushed towards each other for battle. Mecha Sonic curled in a ball like a blade saw and charge towards Sonic. He dodged out of the way. Mecha opened and turned firing spikes towards Sonic. Sonic held the power ring in hand spin dashing towards Mecha and knocking him to the side. He got back up and jumped towards Sonic again like a saw again.

Meanwhile, Tails was finishing up the last of the chimp bots. He fired a shot at the bot, it dodged out of the way only to get smacked away by Knuckles right into driller and cluck trying to get back up. And those three were the last badniks remaining.

Mecha Sonic moved into position aiming at Sonic. However, the hedgehog saw he was between Mecha and the crane mechanism. He waited until Mecha Sonic opened fire before dodging out of the way one last time. The spikes destroyed the crane mechanism and the emerald fell as the cable holding it snapped.

"NO, YOU DINGBOTS!" Snively shouted. He tried to reach for the device but as he was running his cape got caught and it got torn.

"Oh crap." Knuckles thought. Then, the master emerald hit the platform it was formerly one. As it hit a huge wave of chaos energy spread from the impact site. Everyone was caught in the blast.

"Ugh." Sonic said as he was getting back up. Then, he went to Tails as he was trying to get up. "Tails, are you alright?" He noticed that Tails was yellow now. "What happened to you?"

"I would like to ask you the same thing." He replied. Sonic looked at himself and saw he was slightly taller and no longer pudgy.

"Whoa, I think I've eaten a bad chili dog."

"I don't think so." Knuckles said as he was getting up. Sonic and Tails saw that Knuckles had become a giant compared to them.

"What!?" the two stated.

"I said the master emerald has immense power." He said. "I think we were affected by the energy blast it gave off." Then, they heard a laugh from Snively who stood up.

"At last, I finally had reached the build of my late uncle." Snively said. He, now, looked like the former Dr. Robotnik except that he didn't have a robotic arm and he was wearing green instead of red. "I will be able to reach greater heights; this might a setback for now. But just you wait Sonic, I will triumph over you."

"Look at that, Tails." Sonic snickered. "Snively turned into a talking egg."

"What!?" Snively stated. "I'm not an egg."

"You don't like that, Snively Egghead?"

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!"

"Whatever you say, Dr. Eggman." Sonic said with a smirk. Snively growled at him.

"I HAVE BETTER THINGS TO DO OTHER THAN ARGUE!" Snively shouted. "All remaining robots, get in the air ship."

"Duh, yes sir, Snively." The driller stated.

"Let's get out of here." The cluck added.

"Eh, wait for me." The chimp bot said. Mecha Sonic got in the ship silently; he was badly damaged but Sonic thought he turned blue and had a much streamlined build but couldn't confirm it. Afterwards, the airship left.

"Well, we did it." Knuckles said.

"So, what do we do now?" Tails asked.

"Well, let's get back to the tornado and head home." Sonic said. He saw a piece of Snively's cape that was torn off; he took it and tied it around his neck like an ascot.

"I don't know." Knuckles stated.

"Come on, Knuckles." Tails added. "Soleanna will be a nice place to be at."

"I'm wondering about the master emerald." Knuckles asked. At that point, a white mist appeared on the ground.

"Now, what's going on?" Sonic asked. The white mist formed together into a form of an echidna with beads in his dreadlocks.

"Altahair?" Knuckles asked.

"I am here, Knuckles." The phantom stated.

"You're been dead for a long time."

"The energy from the master emerald has reawakened me from my slumber."

"I can tell."

"Dear Knuckles," he said. "Go with them."

"But what about the master emerald?"

"Do not fear." Athair explained. "I will watch over it."

"As you wish." Then, he turned to the other two. "Sonic, Tails, Let's go."

"Now, let's juice on out of here." Sonic said.

After they had fixed the Tornado, the three headed back to Soleanna where Princess Sally and Bunny were waiting for them. The three had explained everything that had happened to them up to that point.

"Well, it's a good thing that I remade the Freedom Fighter Force when I did." Sally said.

"That's also a lot to take in, sugarhog." Bunny replied. "Where do we go from here?"

"Well, we know that Eggman can't his hands on the Master Emerald." Knuckles said. "So logically, he will go after the next best thing: the chaos emeralds."

"So, that'll be the plan." Sonic stated. "We'll get all of the chaos emeralds before the doctor does."

"For once, I argue with you, Sonic." Sally said. Then, she turned to Knuckles. "I know, it's hard that you had grown up as you did. But if there is anything you need help with, let us know and we'll help you through it."

"Thanks, Sally." He responded.

"We can't promise you a family." She said.

"I know that." He stated. "But you guys will do just fine."

"Okay, so do you mind being on the team?"

"No, I don't mind. In fact, I'd be offended if I wasn't." Knuckles answered.

"Then, it's settled Knuckles is now a part of this force." Sally declared.

"I'll make sure that the Tornado has plenty of fuel." Tails said.

"We can check on stuff in the training room to get back in shape." Bunny said. "Would you like to come along, Knuckles?"

"Okay." He responded. "I think." Then, those three left to do what they were doing. This left Sonic and Sally alone.

"I'll look some information up with Nicole about anything about the chaos emeralds." Sally added. Then, Sonic spoke up.

"How is Uncle Chuck doing?" Sonic asked.

"The de-robotisizer is completed." Sally answered. "They are going to do a test run. Charles wanted to personally test the device himself."

In a laboratory, Rotor was working on the device with Sir Charles. Rotor was in a white lab coat with a pen in his pocket. Although he was fully robotisized, he had full control over his actions. She stepped onto the platform.

"Are you sure you want to be the test subject, Uncle Chuck?" Rotor asked.

"I built the original robotisizer." Charles said. "And Robotnik stole it and caused a huge chunk of the population to become robots. I'm responsible for what happened. I have to be the one to reverse the effects."

"Very well. I won't stop you." Rotor said. "On the count of three, we'll start. One… Two… Three." Then, Rotor activated the device. There was a great flash of light, then the device deactivated. Charles took a deep breath.

"At last, I am free from the robot shell." Charles said.

"Uh, Charles you're now gold." Rotor pulled up a mirror and it showed Charles' fur and quills have now turned a golden color. Although, his mustache remained light blue.

"Well, I don't mind being gold."

"And about you being freed…" Rotor mentioned.

"Yeah?" Chuck asked.

"Only your head is free."

"Oh… shoot."

"How does that work?" Rotor asked.

"I have no idea." Charles answered.


	3. A Secret Lost in the Wood

A Secret Lost in the Wood

Rotor was in his laboratory working on stuff. He had built a simulation machine and had Sonic be inside it. Uncle Chuck went to get lemonade for the two.

"How long will this take, Rotor?" Sonic asked.

"We are going to need to run a few tests to see how that chaos wave had on you." Rotor responded. "This shouldn't take too long."

"I'm not a guinea pig. I'm a hedgehog."

"I know you are, but we have to get through this first."

"Oh fine." Sonic said.

"Okay, activating the simulator." Rotor said. Then, a setting of Green Hill Zone surrounded Sonic. "Whenever you move, the floor will move as well in the opposite direction."

"Alright, can we start already?" Sonic asked.

"You may begin now." Rotor said. Sonic began to run in the simulator. Sonic dodged the obstacles that appeared in his path. He came across a double loop and Sonic took the twin loop and made it. "Good. Now, badniks will start to show up. Remember these are just programmed entities with no real substance."

"English, please."

"They aren't real."

"That I can get." At the moment, Swat Bots appeared in the simulator. They opened fire at Sonic, he slide underneath the bots and they looked back towards him.

"Hey, Swat Buts." Sonic said over here. Then, Swat Bots begin to chase him. "Hey Rotor, how are you able to get an accurate thing on their abilities?"

"I found an old cartridge on all badniks that were built before the Doomsday Project was destroyed." Rotor said as Sonic continued to dodge the fire. "Any badniks we encounter will be added to the database, we can choose to face specific ones or have it set on random like now."

"I can see that." Sonic jumped onto a wall to run up it. The Swat Bots tried to stop but crashed in the wall. Sonic jumped down from the wall to the trees and back to the ground. "Heh, too easy." He turned to Rotor. "Hey Rotor, can you get me an extra challenge? I'm just getting warmed up."

"Alright," Rotor sighed. "I'll check what's available." Then, he check to the enemy list and incoming. He looked in shock when the upcoming enemy stated 'Elite Class Swat Bot'. "Sonic, there's a badnik I've never heard of coming up."

"Well, we can see what it can do."

Then, said swat bot appeared. It had a large green cylindrical body and it was floating in mid-air. It had two arms with giant fists.

"Target sighted." The Swat bot said. "Eliminate blue hedgehog."

"I've heard that before." Sonic stated. The swat bot extended his arm and grabbed Sonic while he was talking. Then, threw Sonic as a fastball slamming him right into a tree and he went right threw it. As Sonic was getting back up, the bot charged forward firing a laser at him. Sonic dodged out of the way.

"Sonic, pull out." Rotor stated. "It's too dangerous." Sonic growled but knew he would get creamed if he didn't. He withdrew but the bot pursued him.

"He's following me." Sonic answered. The machine tried to use his extending arms to grab Sonic again. He was able to dodge out of the way. He tried to grab for a power ring but then remembered he didn't bring one. "Oh great, forgot the power ring."

"I didn't expect this to happen." Rotor said feeling guilty about this.

"I'll have to try it then." Sonic focused on himself and getting out of there. He started moving faster than he could before. He was come up to a stone wall and he started to spin dash and went right through the wall.

"Whoa!" Rotor stated. "That's must be the effect. The power ring must have become a part of Sonic himself." Sonic noticed what he could do.

"WooHoo!" He stated. "Eat my dust, swat bot." He zoomed off as the swat bot tried to play catch up. He zipped along walls and even a ceiling. But Sonic got carried away for he was moving so fast, he was outrunning the floor underneath him.

"Uh, Sonic…" Rotor stated. "Maybe you should…" But it was a little too late. Sonic did another morph ball and built up a lot of momentum. Uncle Chuck came back in with two glasses of lemonade.

"How are things going?" He asked. At that moment, Sonic busted a hole in the wall of the simulator while spin dashing. He didn't see where he was going and accidently hit Uncle Chuck. Charles fell over and the lemonade spilled. He came out of the ball and saw what just happened; he ran over to Uncle Chuck.

"Uncle Chuck, I'm sorry." Sonic stated.

"It's alright, Sonny." Charles replied and Sonic looked at Chuck and saw his robot body was cracking. At that moment, the robot body busted apart and Chuck was returned to normal. The three were stunned about what happened.

"What just happened?" Sonic asked.

"I think now." Chuck said. "You now have the ability to de-robotisize everyone now."

"By ramming into them in a morph ball?" Sonic asked. "That's the dumbest thing I heard."

"I think it's the chaos energy that did that." Rotor suggested. "But right now, we have another problem to worry about."

"What would that be?" Charles asked. Then, Rotor showed him the video replay on what had happened in the simulator. "Oh, I think I remember seeing something like that in the Robotnik files. Can I be at the computer for a bit?"

"Go ahead, Chuck." Rotor said. Then, Charles was at the computer when Sonic came behind him.

"So what have you been doing for the past year, Uncle Chuck?" Sonic asked.

"Well before I started working with Rotor, I was for a time the head of the Soleanna Senate." He explained. "But I quit being Prime Minister."

"What happened?"

"The ones underneath were acting more like clowns than senators. And I did tell them that the position in power is not a circus."

"Okay, just wanted to know." Then, Charles found the folder for the Elite Class Swat Bots.

"Here it is." He said. "Now, we can find out more about these things." He clicked on the files and saw that the text was a jumbled mess and was cryptic. "Rotor, did you have the cryptic cracker installed to crack the code Robotnik had?"

"I did and it's active." Rotor answered. Charles thought for a moment.

"Probably somebody didn't want someone finding out about this." He found a file for 'Zero'. "Hmm, well start with this one." He clicked on it and it showed the exact swat bot Sonic was facing. "That's our swat bot." He looked at the text. "It's still jumbled but I found an audio file on here."

"Well, play it." Sonic said. Charles clicked play on the file.

 _"I have completed creating the first of the elite swat bots." Snively said. "The official unit's name is E-100 Alpha. But I have nicknamed him 'Zero' because he the prototype of the others to come. As far as Dr. Robotnik knows, they are specifically made to guard the doomsday project. And I set the timer of activation to the expected date of the completion of said project." He paused._

 _"I didn't see any new bots at the Doomsday Project." Sonic stated._

 _"But I'm tired of the abuse that Robotnik gave me; so if the project is a success, the elite swat bots will give me the power to overthrow and kill Robotnik." Snively answered. "The, I will be finally rid of the idiot once and for all. For now, I will leave them to activate on their own." The three of them stood there with mouths agape as the audio file stopped._

"How many of these things are there?" Sonic said in a panic. Rotor checked the files.

"I see that there was only a single set of them was made." Rotor stated to Sonic. "But if only one could do that, what could all of them do at the same time." He turned to Sonic. "Sonic, you need to find out about these swat bots and where they are now, fast."

"Fast is my middle name." Sonic replied. "I'll get it done before you get the files un-encoded." Then, Sonic sped off.

"I can only hope." Rotor stated. "Let's get to work. I did see he can now do that stuff without a power ring."

"Yeah, he'll be fine." Charles said. "We'll get him the signal he needs to look for."

Meanwhile, Knuckles was walking around the city and he noticed a building and noticed an old organ on the side. He walked up to it.

"Hmm," he thought. "I wonder if this works." He folded up the glove to expose his fingers and sat down on the bench. He pushed on a key and it worked; then pushed on a foot pedal and it worked. "Okay." He tested some more and started swinging out the tunes. He didn't notice that he was drawing quite a crowd. He got spooked when he saw them and stopped.

"Hey, why you stop playing?" a crocodile said. He was wearing a gold chain around his neck and had black shoes. "You're doing great, man."

"Thanks." Knuckles said.

"Can you do an encore for these cool cats?" he asked.

"Well, alright." Then, he continued playing and the crowd cheered.

Sonic got the signal tracker from Uncle Chuck and the signal to look for based off the elite swat bot he faced in the Simulator. Sonic grabbed a communicator on the way out. He headed into the wilderness in search of them for more information. He found that the signal lead to the Wild Forest.

The trees were completely gigantic; some were as tall as mountains. Sonic looked around to see if there was any evidence of the elite swat bots. He saw some movement nearby. He went over to investigate and saw the three robots from earlier.

"Hey, watch where you are waving that net?" the cluck said.

"Me?" the driller answered. "You the one who happens to be standing there."

"Scratch, Grounder, stop fighting." The chimp bot stated. "We are to look for those lost swat bots, remember?"

"We know, Coconuts." Scratch said.

"We don't need a reminder." Grounder answered.

"So, they're looking for the Swat Bots?" Sonic asked. "Well, things have gotten interesting. I'll have to find them first."

"We have to get the trap ready." Coconuts said.

"It's already ready."

"Yeah, we had a cage hanging ready to go." Grounder said.

"A hanging cage?" Sonic thought. "You expect an elite swat bot to fall for that."

"The decay will come out and distract any elite swat bot that comes forward." Coconuts said. He looked through a set of binoculars. "Here comes one now. Hide." The three hid and a large red and black robot appeared. He had gold bracelets with iron studs on him and long sharp claws. Scratch flipped a switched and a cardboard cutout of the three of them appeared.

"What is this?" the robot said stopping in confusion. Then, Coconuts let go of the rope and a wooden cage fell on top of him. "What!?" The three came out.

"Ha, you fell for our ingenious trap." Grounder stated.

"And now you are our prisoner." Scratch added.

"We're taking you back to Dr. Robotnik right now." Coconuts said.

"Negative. I, Omega, am not your prisoner." the robot said. He slashed at the wooden bars and made a hole. He left the cage grabbing it. "Worthless consumer models." He was slamming the cage against them. "I'll report this back." He continued on his way.

"I'll have to follow him to find the rest." Sonic thought. And began to follow the elite swat bot.

"There's that hedgehog." Grounder said.

"Let's track him down." Scratch added.

"But I'll lead the way." Coconuts answered.

Sonic followed the swat bot until he came to a primitive village hidden in the woods. There were other elite swat bots that were there and the robot began talking to the others. Sonic had to sneak through and count them up. He saw the one he fought in the Simulator as well. He noticed one start to look his way and hid in one of the buildings.

"That was too close." Sonic said.

"Well, well, well." A voice answered. "I see we have a visitor." He turned around and saw a robot sitting in a chair. He was a red and silver robot with a cannon in his right arm and a blue light on his chest. Next to his seat, there was a sealed box. "I am surprised someone was able to find us." Sonic noticed the robot was not making any effort to leave his chair. "What is your reason for coming here?"

"Are you their leader or something?" Sonic asked.

"I was appointed the leader, yes." He answered. "I go by the name, E-102 Gamma."

"Okay, nice to meet you."

"Won't you say and chat for a bit?"

"I have to… uh." Sonic said and thought for a bit.

"I'm sure you want to know about us." Gamma stated.

" _He has a point there."_ Sonic thought.

"Sit down and I will explain to you."

"You were to be built to protect that doomsday device that robutnik created."

"That was true and we activated when we were supposed to."

"Then, how come you weren't there when the place got blown up?" Sonic asked.

"How did you know it blew up?"

"Word spreads quickly." Sonic said.

"We went to the doomsday project like we were supposed to, but found it as a ruins. We found out later that it activated one week ahead of schedule." Gamma explained. "Thus the point of us activating was lost. I took the other 23 elite swat bots with me to this land and I promised that I will find them a new purpose. This was my responsibility as their leader." Then, Omega came in.

"Gamma, Zero wishes to…" Omega said. Then, he noticed Sonic. "Who is that?"

"He is a guest, Omega." Gamma replied. "You need to treat him nicely."

"Whatever." Omega said.

"I never got your name, stranger." Gamma stated returning towards Sonic.

"Sonic." Sonic replied.

"Sonic, I will show you the rest of the E-series."

"Before you do, Gamma." Omega asked. "I wish to speak to you, privately."

The two robots whizzed away from the new arrival, Omega following Gamma as they moved to a place where they could speak in private. Although the two robots had no visible facial expressions to show what emotions they were feeling, the leader could tell something was bothering his subordinate.

"Omega, a thought process bothers your CPU." Gamma noted, trying to get his fellow robot to talk. "Specify."

"Gamma, we cannot trust this hedgehog, he is an enemy to all badniks!" The passionate younger robot declared. "How many of our robotic brethren has he slain in his battles against Dr. Robotnik? How do we know he and maybe his friends will not slay us the first chance they get?"

"Brother, we are not badniks, and Robotnik is no more." Gamma chided him, as the two slid their way across the floor. "If we are to find a new way, we must even trust those who were our enemies."

"All logic circuits suggest your plan is folly." Omega responded, his barrel-shaped head moving back and forth, as if he were shaking it. "But I will trust your judgement in these matters."

"You have gathered much positive input, unit Omega." The leader of the E series declared, almost smiling as if he had a mouth. "But you still have a long way to go in your calculations. Come, let us return to our new friend."

Then, he turned back to Omega after returning to Sonic. "Where are we supposed to meet?"

"At the edge of town." Omega answered.

"Very well, then." Gamma took Sonic and they went to the edge of town to encounter Zero. When they arrived, Zero was waiting for them.

"Hello, Gamma." Zero answered. "It's good to see you."

"It's good to see you as well, Zero." Gamma answered.

"I was amazed that you were appointed as the leader even though I was the first to be built." Zero said. Gamma just calmly spoke back.

"It was the other swat bots decisions." Gamma stated.

"The others are stupid nincompoops with their circuit boards not lined up."

"You can't call the others that way."

"Allow me to be the leader." Zero rebuked.

"I can't just hand the position over, Zero." Gamma answered back.

"So, be it." Zero lifted his arm. "If I can't be leader, no one will." He shot out his hand and it pierced Gamma's armor; Zero electrocuted him and tore out wires from him.

"How could this be?" Gamma stated as he fell to the ground; he was struggling to move.

"What's going on here?" Omega asked. He noticed Gamma on the ground. "GAMMA!" He rushed over to aid him.

"How can you do such a thing?" Sonic asked Zero. "I haven't known Gamma for a long time, but I know that he meant well for the rest of you. And you pull that stunt in front of me. You make me sick, Zero."

"You have no room to talk flesh-bag." Zero answered. "If you defend Gamma, you will be destroyed like him." Omega looked up at Zero.

"Zero. You are an enemy." Omega said. "You will be eradicated."

"I would like to see you try." Zero stated. Omega switched to his machine guns and opened fire on him. Zero dodged out of the way in retreat.

"I'll get him." Sonic said as he charged after Zero.

"O... mega." Gamma stated. Omega turned to Gamma.

"Gamma…"

"I'm sorry… I was never… able to find… a new… purpose."

"It's alright."

"My circuits are too damaged to repair. There is a treasure in the building within the sealed box." Gamma explained. "I want you to give it to the hedgehog."

"Why?"

"I have no use for it. Take care, my brother." Then, Gamma had completely shut down.

"Gamma…" Omega answered. "I will continue what you started and I will find some way to avenge your death." Sonic pursued Zero into the woods and found him.

"Now, I got you Zero." Sonic answered. But he was pulled up into a net. "Ahh!"

"No, we got you Sonic." Grounder said as the original trio came out.

"Oh, great. It's the idiot badniks." Sonic answered.

"We're not idiots." Scratch said. "We are the Super Special Sonic Search & Smash Squad."

"That's the dumbest name for a group I've ever heard."

"Now, we're done with the searching." Coconuts answered. "It's time for the smashing."

"Sonic!" Tails stated.

"Tails, I'm over here." Sonic shouted.

"Let's go, guys." Tails stated.

"You're lucky you have your friends, Sonic." Coconuts said. "But we'll be back." Zero took the three and fled. Tails, Knuckles, Rotor, and Bunny found Sonic and got him down from the net.

"Thanks." Sonic answered.

"Where are those badniks?" Knuckles said. "I'm gonna smash 'em."

"They fled, Knuckles."

"Damn." Knuckles answered.

"Did you get anything about the elite swat bots?" Rotor asked.

"Yeah, there are 24..." Sonic said. "I mean, 23 elite swat bots. One of them turned on the others killing one of them. Then, he joined Eggman."

"I didn't know that these ones were separate, who knew." Rotor said.

"Sonic…" Omega said approaching the group. "Gamma wanted to give you something." The others stood back in fear but not Sonic.

"What's in it?"

"I don't know." Omega set the box down. "Now, I say farewell. Until we meet again." At that moment, left the area and returned to the village of swat bots. Sonic went up to the box and found a bright glowing yellow gemstone.

"Is that what I think it is?" Knuckles asked. He looked closer and was shocked. "It's one of the chaos emeralds."

"So, this is one of the emeralds?" Sonic answered. "Alright, one down. Six to go." After picking up the emerald and the box. They headed back to Soleanna to report to Princess Sally.


	4. Shadows of Soleanna

Shadows of Soleanna

The streets of Soleanna were filled with happy Mobians going about their lives. Shopkeeps running their stalls. Politicians stopping to talk in the square. And the guards on patrol. Yes, it was a cozy and pleasant scene, so different from the sheer and abject terror that the poor souls had to live under during Robotnik's reign. All of that horror seemed like a distant memory now and the happy playing children on the streets below was like something out of a romantic painting prior to the Great War.

"See them all down there so quaint and colorful?" Breezy noted looking through the drapes at the city below. "And the best way for me to profit is to keep things that way."

"Yes, Lady Breezy." Miss Possum agreed, standing in front of the female hedgehog's desk and nodding her head.

"As long as the people are prosperous, business at the casino will boom."

"You'll be seeking a constant flow of cash from the mobians seeking entertainment."

"But Sonic's return complicates things, Posey." The mobian businesswoman explained, sitting at her desk and starting to file her nails. "If the blue blur should discover my criminal activities, it could mean a decrease in my profits."

"So what do you intend to do about it, boss?" Miss Possum asked. In response, Breezy picked up the phone on her desk.

"I think it's time for me to call some old friends, Posie." Dialing the phone, a small smile spread across her face. "Hello Nack, are you and your boys free this weekend? I have a job for Team Hooligan."

* * *

As he walked into the great hall, Sonic could hear the arguing and debating of several dozen voices. As he pushed through the two bronze doors, the blue blur could see Princess Sally up on a podium talking to several faces that he could see on vid screens. Noticing several familiar faces, Sonic saw everyone from Queen Aleena of South Island, Chief Lupe of the Wolf Pack Nation, and Commander Tower of the United Federation. All of their arguing seemed to die down when the hero entered the room.

"And as you can see Chief Lupe," Sally said. "The wolf pack would benefit from trading the onyx from their mines for power rings South Island's hedgehogs manufacture. And with the United Federation acting as a go between, we can all profit from…" All eyes turn to the hedgehog who entered the room as if the politicians all thought this hero who liberated Mobius was going to say something profound.

Instead, the hedgehog casually leaned up against the table pulled out a chili dog and started eating.

"Hey Sal, what's up?" He said casually.

"Sonic, how dare you walk in here like some rude dude with attitude." Sally shouted. "We're right in the middle of a diplomatic meeting."

"Don't worry, Sal. It's cool." He looks up at one of the monitors. "Hey Lupe, nice headdress." Lupe simply responded with a chuckle while the other diplomats (with the exception of Queen Aleema) develop a scowl on their faces.

"You juvenile delinquent! How dare you interrupt this meeting so rudely!" Commander Tower yelled angrily slamming his fist on the G.U.N. table. "I would have you court marshaled for insubordination, if you were under my command."

"Don't be so hard on him, Abe." Aleema said with a soft laugh. "He's just a rebellious teenager. Besides, he's done a lot for Mobius."

"Um, Sally?" Princess Elise asked on one of the monitors. Sonic recognizing Sally's friend from whom she borrowed her new fashion sense. "Shouldn't you tell Sonic about the big announcement?"

"Announcement?" Sonic asked finishing off the last of his chili dog. "What's she jamming on about Sal?"

"Sonic…" She said guiltily looking down towards her feet. "I have decided to wed Sir Ray the flying squirrel. He's a knight from Queen Blaze's court; he and I got along really well." Sonic stared at her in silence, stunned.

"But Sal… How can you marry a guy you don't even know?" the blue blur asked, anger spreading across his face. "I thought you and I were…"

"It's over, Sonic." She stated candidly, right in front of all the foreign diplomats. "I. don't. love. you."

After Sally had dropped this bombshell on poor Sonic, the distraught hero returned to the Knothole Base. Sally had set it aside for Team Sonic's use. Right now, Sonic felt more comfortable here than in the capital.

"I can't believe she said that to me." Sonic yelled angerly, his fists shaking in rage as he paced back and forth. "How can she just ditch me after all that we've been through together?"

"You got to understand, Sonny." Uncle Chuck replied. "You were gone for an awfully long time and Ray the squirrel was here when you weren't."

"Well, ya'll can't be too hard on her, sugarhog." Bunnie commented trying to keep Knuckles from grabbing a mug off the top shelf. "Sally-girl had a lot of pressure on her to get hitched and to take on the role of queen."

"But what about King Acorn?" Sonic asked, raising an eye brow. "He's still alive in the special zone."

"The people are tired of waiting for him, Sonny." The full-fleshed, de-robotisized hedgehog stated. "They want a ruler now, even if Sally isn't happy with it."

"Oh, shiny." Knuckles stated looking at a glowing computer console. "What does this button do?" The naïve echidna reach out and pushed a flashing light on the surface. "I wonder if it will make me coffee." Immediately, a robotic arm came out of the wall picked up the red surprised echidna and dumped him in a bucket of soapy water. The robot arm then picked up a brush and started to scrub him.

"HEY! WHAT'S GOING ON HERE!?" he shouted. "SONIC, GET ME OUT OF THIS CRAZY THING!"

"Sorry, Knux." Chuck said, trying to keep from laughing. "That's the robotic flea bath I was building for Muttski."

"Let me help you now, Dreads." Bunnie snickered, helping the echidna out of the bath. "What ya'll never seen a flashing console before?"

"Ol' Knucklehead was raised by Robutnik Jr." Sonic snickered. "I don't think he's ever seen a chili dog stand before." Suddenly, Tails came bursting into the room flying around excitedly over their heads.

"Guys! Guys! You're not going to believe this!" Tails said. Knuckles grabbed on to Tail's leg and got carried along with him.

"WHOAAAAA! Tails stop. I'm getting dizzy." Knuckles wailed. "I'm gonna blow chunks."

"You know how it feels like the first time you morphball?" Sonic asked. "Tails, let him down." Tails immediately landed on the floor and handed the flier he had to Sonic.

"The casino night zone is holding a Spinball competition." Tails told him excitedly. "And guess what, the prize is free chili dogs for life."

"Chili Dogs, count me in." Sonic yelled excited drooling of all the beef and pork in a bun.

"Wow, I guess he forgot quickly." Charles said to himself.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea, sugarhog." Bunnie said skeptically. "I've heard the lady who runs the place is one ornery little critter."

"I've heard about her, a hedgehog named Breezy Wins." Uncle Chuck said thought fully, stroking his mustache. "I heard she was originally a homeless refugee from South Island, but started business with shady customers when she got to Soleanna."

"Miss Breezy has built herself up quite a criminal organization since she got here." Bunnie warned Sonic. "Word is she completely controls the black market protection rackets and all the town's brothels. I steer clear of her if I were you, sugarhog."

"I can handle her." Sonic waved a hand dismissively. "Tails and I will handle the Spinball game, no problem."

"I sure hope you know what you're doing, Sonny." Uncle Chuck warned. "And I hope those chili dogs are worth it."

"Oh, chili dogs. I hear they are delicious." Knuckles said with interested, pulling a steel cable up from the floor. "Is this one?" He bit into it, zapping him and sparking his dreads in every direction. Then, all the power in Knothole went out.

"Nice going, Knucklehead!"

"I didn't mean it!"

* * *

Mobians of all shapes and sizes gathered at the Casino Night Zone. Spotlights and the flashes of photographers' cameras filled the night sky. Everyone who was anyone in the city made an appearance to watch the Spinball game for charity. It was so crowded Sonic and his friends could barely get to the door.

"Wow, this place is so big and shiny." Knuckles said in awe. "Where do you think they keep the popcorn?"

"I've never thought they have something this big." Tails noted while pointing Knuckles towards a concession stand. "Breezy sure has built up a lot in a little amount of time."

"Shows what you can do when you put your mind to it." An angry voice snapped from behind them. "That's more than anyone can say for you loserz."

The four turned around to see a purple weasel in a fedora, a large white bear, and a small green duck with wild eyes. Sonic walked over to the trio and looked them over.

"So who are you guys supposed to be?" Sonic asked the shifty eyed weasel. "You entering the Spinball competition too?"

"Name's Nack." The weasel said. "And these here are my boys, Bark and Bean. And you better stay out of our way, if youz know what's good for ya."

"All I'm hearing is a bunch of hot air." Bunnie snapped.

"Watch it, girly." Bark replied, picking up a hand full of nails tossing them into his mouth. "Or you'll end up as bear chow."

"Wow, I think you have waaaaay too much iron in your diet." Tails noted as the bear chewed the nails up. "That really can't be got for you." Bean busted out in hysterics at Tails' joke.

"ENOUGH!" Nack shouted. "Wez got places to be and youz best mind your business if you want to stay in a good state of health." He motioned towards the others. "Let's go boys." The trio walked away.

"Talk about hot-heads." Knuckles said munching on his popcorn.

"Look who's talking." Sonic replied rolling his eyes.

The three headed into the casino where the sounds of loud bells, whistles, and prize payout could be heard. Several mobian pigs and possum were pulling on the slot machine levers, while several bears and wolves were playing the roulette wheel. All around the casino floor, the gang could see a bunch of female rabbit mobians serving drinks and working the tables.

"Wow, this isn't stereotypical at all." Bunnie growled crossing her arms. Just then, a drunk wolf came sauntering up to her.

"Hey baby," he said. "Where's the extra drink I ordered?" She immediately felt a slap on her behind and immediately grabbed the glass of beer out of the wolf's hand and dumped it on his head.

"Got lost, furry freak show." She snapped, stomping her cybernetic foot. "Or you're next game will be family jewel crush." Just then, another wolf picked up the drunken lech.

"Come on, Focker Wulf." The sleezy looking canine stated. "Lupe will have our heads, if she finds out you were molesting a mobian girl."

"You're right, Sleet." Focker replied as the two walked away. "She's not worth the trouble." The four walked ahead and came to the sign up table. Sonic immediately picked up the pen and wrote his name on the sheet.

"Man, I can taste the chili dogs right now." Sonic said rubbing his hands together. "This is going to be a blast."

"Hey, why don't we place a bet on Sonic winning?" Knuckles asked.

"We didn't bring any money to bet with." Tails added shaking his head.

"So, how do ya'll gents think we can get some money to bet?" Bunnie asked. Tails and Knuckles looked at Bunnie then to each other and nodded.

"Why are ya'll staring at me that way?" she asked. Ten minutes later, she found herself dressed in fish nets and high heels delivering drinks to a table. "You two are so going to pay for this." She glared at the two others.

As Sonic prepared himself for the Spinball competition, Nack and his two lackeys loaded a large metal sphere into the spinball arena.

"This is it boys. When Sonic runs from this thing, it'll build up enough juice to blow the whole playing field to kingdom come." Nack said.

"Sonic will sure gat a bang from this." Bean said as he giggled hysterically. "We just got rid of the bomb."

"But those pesky friends of his might get in the way." Bark said cracking his knuckles. "We're going to have to teach them a lesson they won't soon forget."

As Sonic entered the playing field, two figures watched him from the office above the Spinball arena. Both were very pleased with the outcome of recent events.

"Sonic has entered the arena and the trap is in place." Miss Possum had told her boss. "We're going to get a good chase out of this for the paying customers before the big explosive finish."

"Excellent work, Posey." Breezy replied. "I've got three cable networks covering this event and sold 800 live tickets, whether Sonic gets out of this or not, I make a profit." She sat down. "Let's just kick back and watch the show."

Sonic dove down the shaft into the Spinball arena, rolling around on the arena floor like a pinball in a machine. Slamming into lights and bumpers, Sonic tried to avoid coasting downwards while his friends tried to steer him back up by controlling the flippers. The points were simply flowing as Sonic bounced from one part of the ring to the other.

"Hey, look at me. I really scored." Sonic said cockily. "When I'm in Spinball, I'm way past cool." Just then as he looked back. "Uh-oh, I got company." A large blue metal sphere came rolling after Sonic giving chase throughout the body of the machine. "Juice and jam time."

As Sonic tried to make his way away from the sphere, it just continued to follow him. Outside of the game, Sonic's three friends watched on in worry.

"We got to do something to help him." Bunnie said. "Guys, don't you have anything up your sleeves?"

"I say we go in there and kick the sphere's butt." Knuckles said.

"Knuckles, the sphere doesn't have a butt." Tails replied.

"It was a figure of speech." Bunnie added. "Now, let's save the sugarhog." Before they could move, Knuckles was hit with a powerful blow that sent him backwards. Turning around, she and Tails saw the form of Bark standing over Knuckles pinning him down.

"I told yuz guys not to get in the way." Nack warned them as he pulled out his gun and aimed it at Bunnie. "Now, reach for the sky."

"You can't do that." Tails said. "It's against the rules." At this point, Bean walks up to Tails.

"Sorry, but you'll get a big bang out of this." Bean added, pulling a dynamite stick out of his ascot. Tails suddenly takes off in a panic while Bean stuck the stick in the controls and ignites the fuse.

"This'll be flashy." Bean said. "And no one will rain on my explosive parade."

As Knuckles and Bark struggled in the background punching and kicking each other relentlessly, Bunny avoided several shots from the wild weasel's gun.

"Hold still while I clobber ya." Nack spat out while reloading his pistol. "It's no fun if you keep jumping around."

"Sorry sugar," Bunnie answered. "I can't stick around for some explosion, but ya'll can come back and see me some time." She kicked Nack in the chin causing him to stumble backwards.

Tails struggled on the floor with Bean as the dynamite fuse continued to shorten and the flippers on the arena floor not moving.

"Hurry up, guys." Sonic said excitedly with the sphere in hot pursuit. "I can't keep this up forever." It was at that point however when luck kicked in on Sonic's side. The sphere stopped and began to flash. And at that point, the dynamite blew up causing both it and the sphere to explode. Sonic was sent flying from the Spinball machine while Team Hooligan was blasted away from the Casino Night Zone.

"Team Hooligan's blasting off again." Bean said.

"Bean, shut up!" Nack shouted as they flew over the horizon.

"So, Sonic managed to win the competition?" Breezy asked as she saw Sonic get the trophy over the moniter.

"Well, there wasn't any competition." Miss Possum explained. "The entire arena blew up."

"It doesn't matter." Breezy wave a hand dismissively. "The ratings were an all-time high and I have requests from our patrons to hold private Spinball parties where the arena explodes."

"But what about his prize of lifelong chili dogs?" Miss Possum asked. "That will be a serious strain on our expenses."

"Make sure the chili dog stand that our voucher is good for goes out of business in three weeks." Breezy said. "That should satisfy him enough that he'll leave us alone."

"Given how fast Sonic eats chili dogs, they'll go out of business in three weeks anyway." Miss Possum replied sarcastically. "Did you send the message you wanted?"

"Oh, I think Sonic will get the message." Breezy says with a smile. "When he takes the first bite of the chili dog."

* * *

Later, Sonic and his friends are eating at the snack shack when Sonic picks up a dog and eats it.

"Wow, this stuff is really good." Sonic exclaimed. "I'll hand one thing to that Casino Operator. She sure knows her chili dogs."

"I'm so glad you won, Sonny." Uncle Chuck said. "But we have another problem brewing."

"Really? What's that?" Tails asked.

"I've received a transmission from my old collegue, Dr. Von Schlimmer, that the Little Planet has once again appeared over Never Lake." He explained. "I'm afraid Eggman will attempt to go after the time stones."

"Don't we have the time stones?"

"We have two. The planet has five." Chuck replied. "And the controller stone."

"Boy, those three hooligans were sure tough." Knuckles commented scarfing down a chili dog. "I wonder if we'll ever see them again."

"Bad weeds like them have a way of growing back, Dreads." Bunnie said. Then, Tails looked around.

"Hey, where did Sonic go?" Tails asked. They all heard toilet flushing. Then, Sonic came out.

"Sorry, I guys." Sonic said. "I told to…" Sonic then retreated.

"Me, first." Knuckles added following him.

"Well, Breezy got them in the end." Bunny added as she and Tails were eating salads.

"Eh, Sonny-boy all right." Uncle Chuck said chomping on his burger. "He's always gotta go."


	5. Journey to the Little Planet

Journey to the Little Planet

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles were traveling on board the Tornado, flying to the far North of the Mobius Archipelago. They were on their way to Never Island where they would find the Little Planet floating above Never Lake.

"Guys, are you sure this is the right way?" Knuckles asked turning the map upside down in confusion. "Were we suppose to turn right at Albuquerque or turn left?"

"I'm sure Tails knows where he's going, Knucklehead?" Sonic replied snarkily from where he stands on the plane's wings. "Besides, you couldn't find your way from your own burrow to the nearest chili dog stand."

"Hey, I resemble that remark." He snapped back. "Besides, why would I want to after yesterday?"

"Will you to stop arguing?" Tails stated keeping his eyes on the controls. "I need to concentrate if I'm going to get us to the Little Planet."

"Ohh, I've heard many wondrous stories about the Little Planet." Knuckles said in awe. "My grandpa, Altahair told me that it appears over the Never Lake every century for only one day. Those who can find all seven time stones before the planet disappears, will have mastery over time itself on the planet."

"I don't think the stones are that juiced, bro." Sonic stated. "But there's still juiced enough that if Eggman got his hands on them, they can be a real threat."

"I just hope we can get to the Little Planet in time." Tails said. But the hopes were dashed away, with the object they saw approaching on the horizon. There a large metallic sphere flowed in the sky like a metal balloon attached to a giant suspension chain anchored into the ground by a several thousand ton bolt. "Uh oh."

"Spoke too soon." Knuckles commented rolling his eyes.

"It looks like Eggman got here before us." Tails cried. "Sonic, we got to make sure the time stones are safe."

"Don't worry about it little buddy." Sonic exclaimed taking a running drive of the right wing of the plane. "I'll make sure old egghead doesn't get the stones." He lands on the giant chain running up it to the planet itself.

"That hothead." Knuckles snapped. "Doesn't he hold anything in awe? I would think that the sight of a miniature planet would at least get some reaction out of him."

"Knuckles," Tails replied. "Where you've seen everything from floating islands to a magical flying stone bench? Nothing surprises you anymore."

Sonic came down on the surface of the Little Planet with a soft clang. Looking around he saw metal streets, circuitry, and small robots going around their tasks.

"Whoa, this place looks like a mega-sized Robotropolis." Sonic said. "Looks like Eggman's been really busy." As Sonic walked around and examined the robotized world, a slender form watched him from the shadows. She was surprised to see another living being on this cold metallic sphere. At first, she believed it must have been another one of Eggman's machines like the one who brought her here. But when she saw he was a living breathing being, she decided to cautiously approach. Hearing the soft tread of footsteps, Sonic quickly turned around.

"Hey, who's there? I know you're out there. Show yourself." Sonic asked. The stranger dove back into the shadows once more. But then, she noticed he was a hedgehog. Just. Like. Her. A wave of excitement suddenly rushed over the young mobian.

"Oh my gosh." She shouted, excitedly, running up and hugging Sonic. "I like totally can't believe you came here rescue me." Sonic suddenly found himself being hugged by a small pink bundle of energy. She chatted on and on while clinging to him like a stuff animal.

"Rescue you? I didn't know you were here." Sonic asked, dumbfoundly. "Who are you anyway?"

"Oh sorry. My name's Amy Rose." The teenage pink hedgehog stated, pulling away from him. "I'm like totally from South Island School for Refined Young Ladies. I'm sorry I didn't have time to change out of my uniform. I was just out for a walk when this big blue metal creep came up and grabbed me." Then, the creep came flying in, grabbed her, and flew away. "Just like this."

"Oh great," Sonic complained. "Now, I have another one to rescue." Rolling his eyes, the hero went barreling after the creep.

On the other side of the Little Planet, Tails brought the Tornado in for a landing on a long metal airstrip. Getting out of the plane, the two decided to have a look around.

"Wow, this place looks really solid." Knuckles said bumping his fit against the ground to see if it was breakable. "I wonder where theyre keeping the time stones."

"I just wonder where Sonic went to." Tail replied pulling out a small device. "I'll see if I can scan for the stones location." It was just then that the pair heard the sound of several whirring motors approached.

"Vell, vhat do ve have here? Looks like a bunch of intruders on Robotnik's Little Planet." The two spun around to see a pair of motobugs standing on either side of a large metal penguin with a dark helmet. "No matta, ze Penguinator will send you to hell."

"The Penguinator?" Tails asked. "That's the stupidest name for a robot I ever heard."

"Hey Tails," Knuckles asked. "Who is this guy again? His accent sounds stupider than Antione's."

"How dare you fools mock me." Pengiunator remarked. "Motobug, attack!" One of the bugs zoomed towards Tails who leapt over it and performed a spin attack with his two tails smashing the bug to pieces. The other ran to Knuckles. He stopped it from moving with one hand, then he picked it up and tossed it over the airstrip edge before a smashing sound was heard.

"That didn't go as well as planned." Penguinator said as the two birds who had been inside the badniks flew away. "It looks like I have to deal vith you myself." The large metal penguin slid on its belly straight toward the two heroes. Standing up when it got close, it fired a red beam out of each one of its eyes knocking each of the heroes back.

"Agh. Ugh." The two grunted as they were knocked back.

"Any last requests?" the Penguinator gloated.

"Why yes," Knuckles said with a smile. "How about a tall refreshing glass of punch." Then, Knuckles smashed his face with his fist smashing the penguin's body. It caused a small squirrel to jump out of the metal body and run away.

"I don't remember that happening." Tails exclaimed. "He must be using a new source of power for his badniks."

"Well done, heroes." A somber voice told them properly. "You have defeated the first of many invaders to my Little Planet." A weird shape appeared before them taking form. "I can use your help as well as the help of your spiky blue friend."

"Who are you?" Knuckles asked. The form of a large owl head appeared.

"Who." The owl head said.

"You." Knuckles snapped back.

"Who."

"You."

"I think his name is Who." Tails remarked.

"That is correct, noble heroes." The owl head exclaimed. "And it looks like your hedgehog friend needs your help on the far side of the planet." Then, the owl head started to flicker and spark.

"Hey, what's going on? Are we getting bad reception?" Knuckles asked. Suddenly, there was a small explosion from a nearby building and a whacky old owl with swirly glasses came out of the building not paying attention to the pair.

"I can't believe that the equipment wore down." He groaned. Then, he saw the two heroes standing nearby. "Oh no." He ran back into the building. "Pay no attention to the owl behind the curtain."

"Oh, give it up already." Tails stated. "Everyone's already read the story about the girl with the ruby slippers who talked to the floating head. I know you're a faker."

"Gosh, darn it." He said. "I was hoping to fool you." The owl shook his head adjusting his glasses. "I'm Old Man Owl and I'm the guardian of the Time Stones."

"So, you're the guy who appeared to Sonic and Aunt Sally." Tails added. "I thought you'd be taller."

"That was when the device was working." Old Man Owl said in frustration. "Now, it's a useless hunk of junk."

"Excuse me," Knuckles added in crossing his arms in front of his cheat. "I don't mean to interrupt your little temper tantrum. But we're in a hurry, could you please help us find our friend and stop Eggman from getting the Time Stones?"

"Oh yes, of course. That's my job." He said, waddling away. "That's what I do best." The two shook their heads as they followed him through the passageway.

Sonic raced along the open paths and roadways following the metal imposter as he flew along the track.

"Hey get back here you faker!" he shouted. "I'm not going to have a cheap knockoff hedgehog napping damsels in distress."

"Not to turn down a compliment." Amy said pulling out a hammer from out of nowhere. "But I can take care of myself." She slammed the hammer down on the metal sonic's head, stunning him and causing him to drop her. Sonic caught her just in time.

"Ugh." He exclaimed as he caught her. "Boy, you're heavy." Then, the hammer came down on his head. "Ow."

"Don't ever comment on a lady's weight." Amy scolded him. The imposter turned around and faced the two. "Who are you anyway, Mr. Blue?"

"I'm not Mr. Blue; the name is Sonic the Hedgehog." Sonic answered. "And I'm the fastest thing alive."

"Oh my gosh, Sonic?" Amy asked with glee. "I've like so totally heard about you. I'm like your biggest fan. You totally trashed Dr. Robotnik and saved all of Mobius."

"If you're my biggest fan, then why didn't you recognize—" Sonic quickly trailed off as she raised her hammer. "Maybe we should get you out of here before Metal Sonic catches up with us." They ran along the twisted instrument like bridges made of brass. The flying form of Metal Sonic jetting along on their tails.

Suddenly, they heard a growing humming noise coming from behind them. Looking back Sonic saw the circle on Metal Sonic's chest begin to glow.

"Uh oh," Sonic said looking forward again. "I think we're in trouble. Hold on tight." Then, they zoomed past a sign post which said 'past'. It spun around as they zoomed by. Suddenly sparks began to appear around the two. "Wait, what's going on?"

Then, they vanished from Metal Sonic. Stopping in mid-flight, Metal Sonic looked around. He pounded his fist against the metal floor in frustration.

Elsewhere, Sonic and Amy reappeared on a beautiful green landscape where the sun shone down upon them brightly. And they were surrounded by flowers that almost seemed to dance.

"Whoa, what is this place?" Amy asked looking around. "It's really pretty."

"Looks like we've gone back from the future." Sonic noted. "This place hasn't been robotized yet."

"It looks really wonderful." Amy exclaimed as she walked over to pick a flower. As she tried to pull it, not only would it not move. She heard a high-pitched yelp. "These things are intelligent."

"Maybe they're what Eggman is after." Sonic suggested looking over towards the horizon. He saw a small shrine off in the distance. "What's that over there? Maybe we can have a look." Sonic grabbed her hand and zoomed along with Amy in tow.

"Wow, you are a fast talker." Amy said, sarcastically. As the two approached the small shrine, Sonic noted five glowing stones sitting on the pedestals in the middle of the shrine.

"Whoa, what are these things?" Sonic thought. "I gotta take them along, I guess." He grabbed the five stones and put them in his pack.

Meanwhile back in the present, Tails and Knuckles were following Old Man Owl who was leading them along the path towards the Present version of the same shrine. Along the way, Knuckles and Tails kept smashing and crushing the badniks that they encountered.

"Wow, this is really weird, Knuckles." Tails noted as he smashed a caterkiller to pieces. "Why do these badniks keep releasing flowers?"

"Eggman must a fan of Home and Garden Magazine." Knuckles joked around punching a burrobot as it came out of the ground. "Hey old man, where are you taking us anyway?"

"It's some place important, I think." The owl stated. "Where we can stop these robots, but I don't quite remember what we have to do there."

"Maybe it has something to do with the time stones." Tails suggested. "That's the reason why we're here after all."

"Oh yeah, it's the time stone shrine, of course." The owl answered. "We have to go to the shrine to play with the stones."

"Boy, this owl is definitely senile." Knuckles commented which earned him a smack on the back of his head from a feathered wing.

"I can still hear, you know." The owl hooted. "Gosh, darn young whippersnapper."

"You may be going after the time stones," a familiar voice called out. "But that doesn't mean you'll get them." A large spherical floating robot rose from behind the shrine with four large metal fins. And began to advance towards them, its blades spinning at a ludicrous speed. "Prepare to be chopped to bits, furballs."

"It's Eggman, run!" Tails exclaimed spinning his tails like a helicopter and taking off into the air carrying Knuckles and Old Man Owl.

"We got to get the drop on him somehow." Knuckles said as the spinning blades of death chased the trio around and around in circles around the shrine.

"I just wish everything on the planet will go back to normal." Old Man Owl wailed.

"You wish, but it won't happen." Eggman stated. "I have five of the time stones, there's no way that-." Suddenly, everything metallic became green again. "What the… This isn't happening. I specifically sent Metal Sonic to steal the time stones in the past."

In the past, Metal Sonic arrived at the shrine to see that the time stones were missing. He sent a message to Dr. Eggman about what was the situation.

"Hey Metalhead," Sonic stated to him. "We beat you to the punch." Sonic flew to him slamming his fist into his metal jaw. Metal Sonic's head spun around before the robot stopped it back in place. He curled up and dashed at his organic counterpart. Sonic used a spin dash as well and the two collided in mid-air. Both were knocked back by each other's force only to jump at each other again.

"Sonic, hurry up. We got to get out of here." Amy called out as the two blue blurs collided in mid-air again and again. "We can't let the shiny stones fall into Metal Sonic's hands."

"This guy's too tough." Sonic grumbled. "We got to fall back." As he slammed into Metal Sonic one last time. Metal Sonic responded by charging up his beam cannon again, but as he was about to fire. Amy grabbed one of the time stones out of Sonic's back pack.

"I've had just about enough of you." Amy said throwing one of the time stones up into the air. She pulled out her hammer and smacked it right into the stone sending it flying towards Metal Sonic. "Batter up."

Just as the beam was about to fire, the time stone landed right in the barrel of the cannon. There was a glowing flash of light and what sounded like a robotic scream. When Sonic and Amy looked back, there was a pile of unassembled gears and parts laying scattered on the ground.

"Wow, what did you do to him?" Sonic asked stunned.

"I think the time stone sent him back to a time before he was built." Amy responded. Running over to the pile of scrap, Amy picked up the stone and went back to Sonic. "Come on pick up some speed so we can get back."

"I don't know how we got here in the first place." Sonic said.

"Time has no meaning on the Little Planet." Amy replied. "We can go from past to future whenever you pick up speed." Sonic noticed a post that said 'future' in the distance.

"In that case, it's juice and jam time." He said as he pulled Amy long running past the spinning sign post.

Back in the present, Knuckles and Tails were running from Eggman while Old Man Owl stared at the time alter in confusion.

"This is strange." The goofy old bird said. "The time stones should be here." He thought and then perked up. "I know… they're going to arrive by hedgehog mail." At that moment, Sonic appeared with Amy by his side and went racing up to the altar.

"Hey, here's the shrine we got these things from." Sonic noted. "But who's the geezer?"

"Show some respect, you young punk." Old man owl shouted slapping the hedgehog on the back of the neck. "Now, give me those time stones before things get even worse."

"Wait, those were the time stones?" Sonic asked. "What were they doing out in the open like that?"

"Where did you expect them to be? Some crazy labyrinth somewhere?" Amy replied. "Hurry up and give them to Mr. Owl. He knows what to do." Sonic handed the over the five time stones he took from the alter as well as the two he and Sally recovered from the owl mask.

As the old owl placed them all on the location, the pedestal lifted up to reveal the controller stone.

"Yep, here's the thingamajig that handles all time travel on Mobius." The owl explained. "Could you imagine what would happen if your Eggman got his hands on this thing?" He went back and unplugged the entire console. "There that should do the trick."

Meanwhile, Knuckles' temper had finally reached the breaking point.

"I've had enough of this, Ivo." Knuckles shouted jumping up to grab one of the spinning fins and ripping it off. "You're going for a ride." He smacked the fin down onto the machine sending it flying through the air.

"Ah, I'm out of time." Eggman said as he was sent flying into the air. "Better grab Metal Sonic and get out… if I can find him." At that moment, Old Man Owl closed the console and looked back at the others.

"Good-bye you kids, thanks for bringing the stones back. And thanks for your help." The bird said. A giant flash of light suddenly engulfed the Little Planet as Sonic ran down the chain with Amy and Tails and Knuckles took off in the Tornado. Sonic hit the chain with a giant spin attack breaking it and the Little Planet flew upwards before vanishing into a giant shower of sparks and light.

"Looks like the time stones are safe." Amy said looking back at Sonic. "I guess, this is good-bye." Sonic rolled his eyes and looked at the ground for a few moments before sighing.

"You were a big help on this mission, Amy." Sonic said. "And I would like to say 'thanks'. If you wanted, I could ask Princess Sally if you could join me and…" Then, Amy hugged him.

"Oh Sonic, I would be happy to join your team." Amy shouted cheerfully.

"Wait, what…?" Sonic said. "Amy that's not what… Nevermind."

"Did we miss something?" Tails asked.

"You missed it a long time ago." Sonic replied as the four flew back in the Tornado back towards Soleanna.


	6. Song of the Pack: Pt 1

Song of the Pack: Pt 1

As the sun set over the dry rock of Rail Canyon, a lone blue aircraft could be seen coming over the valley. On board Tails, Knuckles, and Amy sat in the cockpit seats while the form of a smirking hedgehog rode center on the top wing.

"I can't believe Princess Sally asked us to go in and retrieve the blue chaos emerald from the Wolf Pack nation." Amy exclaimed admiring the dry yet beautiful scenery below them. "You've met the pack before, Tails. What are they like?"

"Oh Chief Lupe is very friendly." Tails replied. "I'm sure she'll have a warm welcome planned for us."

"Well, I can see that warm welcome right now." Knuckles added looking down at the ground. "Why are all those wolves standing down there holding those funny torches up?" the others looked to the ground only to see several wolf pack members with flaming arrows pointing towards the sky.

Before anyone can react, the tribe members unleashed a volley of shots… that immediately flew over the plane and hit several buzz bombers that Team Sonic didn't notice.

"Why are they shooting at us for? We're the good guys." Sonic protested.

"It wasn't us, Sonic." Tails replied. "We were being followed by badniks and didn't know it." The plane came in for a landing; a female gray wolf with a scar under her left eye. The young vixen looked about Sonic and Knuckles' age, but seemed to carry a weariness in her eyes that made her look like an elder.

"Friend Sonic, I'm pleased to see you again." The young wolf said, pushing the dust off her tunic. "Tell me, what brings you and your companions to our lands?"

"What's up, Lupe? Looking hot like usual." Sonic replied. That got a chuckle from Lupe and her alpha guards. Amy, on the other hand, whacked him on the head with her hammer. "OWW! What'd you do that for?"

"I don't you taking too much interest in the natives." Amy said through clenched teeth.

"Ah, you must be Amy Rose; daughter of Rosie the Rascal." Lupe answered. "Your mother was quite the adventurer; she even visited her tribe once." The chief looked back at Knuckles. "And who is your dreadlock covered companion back there?" Knuckles raised his right hand.

"How." He answered. "Me am Knuckles. Me want to be friends and smoke um peace pipe."

"You, Knuckles, have bad grammer." Lupe replied trying not to laugh. Her guards already rolling on the floor. "But if you like some help with that our tribe kindergarden teacher can show you how to speak correctly." Then, she started laughing.

"What?" Knuckles replied. "That's how they talk on TV."

"How disappointing." She replied, shaking her head. "I've heard that the echidna tribes were great and honorable warriors. It's a shame to see that the apple has fallen this far from the tree."

"Hey, I resemble that remark." He yelled. Leading to another round of laughter from the wolf warriors.

"Can we get back to business?" Tails groaned. "I can use some help refueling the plane and we should get everyone indoors before sunset."

"You're quite correct, friend fox." Lupe replied. "My warriors will help you get your craft down into the caves."

"Can we also get some grub?" Amy added. "I don't mean to complain but I'm starving."

"Of course." Lupe replied with a smile. "When we heard that friend Sonic was arriving, we prepared the traditional dish, dogs of chili." Before anyone could say another word, Sonic had vanished into the entrance to the caves below.

The wolf pack nation's home was a network of tunnels that criss-crossed the mountains of the Sky Rail Canyon. As Team Sonic followed the wolves through the tunnels. Tails noted several bright and colorful chalk drawings on the cave walls.

"Wow, you wolves are really good artists." Tails added.

"Oh, that's just the preschool art." Lupe replied. "Most of the high school kids and adults do cravings."

The group arrived in the large central chamber, many of the wolves from the tribe were already gathered a large circle; seated around a blazing fire in the center of the room. Lupe offered a seat to their guests. Then, took her place at the head of the circle.

"Come, my friends. Enjoy the food we have prepared." Lupe offered as several vixens brought plates loaded with chili dogs and cheese fries with mozzarella dip. "After you have feasted, then we will speak of the emerald."

Meanwhile outside of the cave system, a hover bike with a two-seater side car pulled up at the cave's entrance. A weasel hopped off the bike followed by a polar bear and an insane duck who hopped out of the side cars.

"We found them. Are we gonna blow 'em up?" The duck asked with his eye twitching as if he had too much caffeine. "Huh, huh, huh. Are we gonna blow 'em up?" the polar bear squeezed his beak shut.

"Shut your yap, little dweeb." The bear answered. "You'll blow our cover."

"Will you twos be quiet?" The weasel rebuked them. "I'm trying to come up with a plan." Looking around, Nac noticed a river trickling down the cliff side from a lake on top of the mountain.

"So, how are we gonna get the emerald? Huh?" Bean asked, spazzing out.

"Miss Breezy will pay us a lot to get that emerald and get those wolves out of here." Bark answered. "Then, she can build her new resort casino here."

"Boys, I'z think we have a plan." Nac announced to them looking at a boulder blocking the water from flowing. "Throw your bombs up there, Bean. We'll the wolves all washed up and hang 'em up to dry." Bean already lit one of the bombs and tossed it up towards the large boulder. The three got back on the bike and drove off as fast they could before the boulder exploded into a thousand pieces.

The wolves and their guests were enjoying their meal when they heard a loud boom from outside. Getting up to see what was the matter, several of the wolves could hear the sound of rushing and roaring water pouring into the cave's entrance.

"IT'S THE RIVER!" one of the wolves shouted. "IT'S FLOWING INTO THE CAVES!" Everyone immediately jumped to their feet and headed up to high ground.

"Sonic, get the children out of the caves." Lupe said. "Amy, Knuckles, I'll need your hammer and fists to block off the passage so that the cave doesn't get flooded any farther then it has to."

"Sure." Amy replied, pulling her trusty piko hammer out.

"I'm on it." Knuckles answered cracking his fists.

"Up over and gone." Sonic added grabbing several of the kids and running back and farther between the cave and the emergency exit. "Good thing, you have a back door."

Amy and Knuckles struck the wall of the cave. Then, jumped back as the rock trumbled filling the entrance as the waves stampeded in. Not a lot of water got through the closing wall of boulders filling the chambered floor only up to their ankles.

"Well, that's one disaster averted." Lupe noted looking towards the back exit. "Amy, light a torch and follow me out of the cavern."

"On it." Amy replied. Holding her hand up, a blue ghost light flame appeared floating just above her glove. The flame itself gave off no heat, only light came from it.

"Neat little trick." Lupe answered. "Let me guess, you're an esper."

"Huh?" Knuckles asked. "Is that Amy's religion or something?"

"It means I'm a psychic, knucklehead." Amy replied rolling her eyes. "I inherited a little talent, my mum."

"If you two are done talking." Lupe said. "We need to protect the chaos emerald." She pulled two black stone fragments out of her cloak.

"That's not a chaos emerald." Knuckles said. "Believe me, my tribe used to guard them. I know this stuff."

"No, they're not a whole emerald." She answered. "The pieces are trapped in the stone itself."

"Hey, I recognize those things." Amy gasped. "Those are the deep power stones! Those are the artifacts Sonic and Princess Sally used to destroy the Doomsday device and beat Robotnik."

"Indeed. They were given to our tribe to protect as a sign of trust." Lupe explained holding the two stones together. "We have been trying to figure out how to put the broken pieces of the chaos emerald back together, but as you can see we haven't had any luck."

"Let me try." Knuckles said. Lupe handed the two pieces to Knuckles.

"I wonder if there's some of sort of echidna ritual that will make the stones whole." Amy asked, curiously.

"We'll find out." Lupe responded. Knuckles spread his arms out as far as he could go and slammed the pieces together.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Amy shouted. "YOU BIG, KNUCKLEHEAD!" The two rocks smashed together and there was a bright flash of light…

* * *

On the surface above, the rest of the wolf tribe helped the children Sonic had rescued down into the canyon floor. Racing back towards the emergency exit to see if there were any cubs left, Sonic found himself face to nose with an angry weasel pointing a pistol directly at his face.

"Nac, you slimeball. What are you doing out here?" Sonic growled, bearing his teeth. "Wait, I bet you're the one behind this."

"You got that right, Sanic." Nac chuckled waving his gun around. "Miss Breezy wants dat chaos emerald and these wolves out of the way; doesn't matter if their alive or not."

"You mean that greedy gangster's behind this." Sonic answered, clenching his fist. "Looks like I have to take her down, just as soon as I finish with your sorry butt."

"We'll see whose butt is hurt after this, hedgehog." The weasel opened fire just as Sonic dove at him with a spindash. The shot collided with the blue buzzsaw knocking him straight back breaking the spin.

"Hey, how'd you do that? No one ever block my spin dash before." Sonic said falling back into the waiting claws of Bark.

"You're not going anywhere." Bark gnarled as he gripped onto Sonic tightly with the strength even Knuckles could've broken through. "What are we gonna do with him, boss?"

"Bean, get one of your special bombs ready." Nac said with a smile. "We're going to decorate this canyon with splattered hedgehog surprise…"

* * *

-To Be Continued-


	7. Song of the Pack: Pt 2

Song of the Pack: Pt 2

Sonic awoke to the blurry sight of the morning twilight sky and the sound of three mobian voices chuckling.

"Boy, youz gonna get it now this time, hedgehog." Nac chortled. "This is going to be your last ride."

"You said it, Nicnac." Bean replied tossing a bomb up and down gleefully. "When those boom-booms I put under him go kablooey, there'll be bits of hedgehog everywhere."

"You've bitten your last chili dog, Sonic." Bark growled waving one of the spicy chili dogs in his face before shoving it into the surprised hedgehog's mouth.

"Why you little – mmph." Sonic said but was cut off by the food stuffed in his face.

"We're done here, boys. Time to go into what's left of the caves and collect out reward." Nac proclaimed.

"See you later, hope your trip ends with a bang." Bean stated. As the three left, Sonic struggled against the ropes tied tightly around his body. If he could just pull himself together enough to form a spindash, he could cut his way out of this mess, but the ropes bound him too tightly. Below him, Sonic could hear and see he fuses on the three bombs that Bean had left circling the set up with the spark burning each section.

"Uh oh," Sonic quipped. "Looks like I got to get a way out of here and fast."

Finding a still open entrance to the cave, Team Hooligan descended into the caverns below. Breaking the wick off of one of his bombs, Bean lit the fuse and held it above his head as a torch. Then, he did the same thing with three other wicks arranging them into a crown and put it on his head.

"Really spooky!" Bean statd.

"What's wrong with him?" Bark whispered to Nac.

"I think he was dropped on his head as a child." Nac replied. "Either that, or he's haunted."

As the trio descended deeper into the cave, they heard a sound that reminded them of a tribe of wolves chanting. But there seemed to be no source of the sound.

"The ghosts of the wolves' ancestors." Bark stated nervously. "This place is haunted."

"Oh, you are just imagining things." Nac told him, brushing it off. "Now come on, let's find that emerald and get outta here."

"It is dangerous to trespass on sacred ground." A deep and husky feminine voice growled. "All intruders shall pay the ultimate price."

"What was that?" Bean asked starting to shake in his webbed feet. "This place is spookier than I am."

"You were never spooky to begin with." Bark growled rolling his eyes.

Suddenly, the glowing light of the chaos emerald appeared in the tunnel before them. Slowly moving forward, the emerald seemed to float on its own in midair.

"AHHHH! IT'S HAUNTED!" Bean sheirked jumping behind Nac.

"Oh, give me a break. There's no such thing as ghost." Nac rebuked the two of them. "It's just that wolf chick playing tricks on us."

"This is no trick foolish mortals." A wolfish voice declared. Stepping out of the shadows, team hooligan saw a ferocious female wolf. Her eyes and hair ablaze with a golden flame. The grey female's piercing gaze seemed to stare into the three criminals' souls. "You didn't leave when you had the chance." She pointed a claw at them accusingly. "Now, you shall face that guardian of the emerald."

Behind where the ferocious figure stood, Knuckles picked up a large bottle of sugar he had gotten out of the wolf tribe's pantry.

"This is a trick I learned when Snively was babysitting me." He stated popping the cap off. He proceeded to pour the entire bottle of sugar down his throat. Suddenly, the young echidna's pupils dilated. His entire coat seemed to glow with a golden shimmer.

"BEHOLD!" He screamed as he racing forward into past Lupe. "THE POWER OF HYPER KNUCKLES!" The three members of Team Hooligan almost wet themselves in shock.

"Hey, what the…" Bark said, but never got a chance to finish. Knuckles grabbed the surprised polar bear's ankles and proceed to swing him high into the air, smashing him into the floor on all four sides of himself.

"OWW! OHH! EEEIII!" Bark stated. "NAC, HELP ME!"

"Put 'em down, jacked echidna." Nac stated clicking the safety on his gun. "Or I'll blow you…" Knuckles ignored him as he threw Bark at Nac. "What?" The two went flying backwards.

"You may have gotten those two, dreadhead. But you aren't going to get the best of me." Bean answered, twirling a bomb on his finger. "Say 'hi' to all the other echidnas for me."

"It will be you… Who will see your ancestors today." Lupe stated pulling out her claws. She slashed the duck across the face leaving a set of red marks and slicing his bomb in half. Reaching into his pouch and picking out another bomb, Lupe shoved the bomb into his bill, grabbed the crazy Knuckles and dashed off down the cave. "Happy landings, Team Hooligan."

Outside of the mountain, the struggling Sonic saw a small explosion tear out of the cliff face with three mobians sent flying off into the distance.

"That stupid hedgehog's friends got us again." Nac cried out as hey hurled into the sky, vanishing over the horizon. Sonic would have smiled if he didn't only have a few moments left before these bombs went off. Pulling against the ropes, Sonic desperately tried to even break one of his bindings.

"Hey Sonic, looks like you could use some help." A voice cried out from above. Looking skywards, he heard the whirling sound of two tails helicoptering over him. "Team hooligan get you in a bind?"

"Boy Tails, I'm glad to see you." Sonic answered gratefully. "Can you give me a hand with these ropes?"

"Sure thing." Tails stated landing on top of the captive hedgehog. "This should take a second."

"It better." Sonic replied. Pulling at the knots, Tails grumbled.

"We didn't have to deal with one this tough in fox scouts."

"JUST HURRY IT UP, TAILS!" Sonic pleaded desperately. The little fox managed to undo the tightest knot just as the fuses were burning back into the bombs. Quickly spindashing and cutting the ropes, Sonic and Tails leapt away from the exploding bombs just as the mountain's summit went up in a giant fireball.

"Talk about cutting it close." Tails remarked as he carried his spiky blue friend to safety. "Team Hooligan almost got the better of us this time."

"Yah, Tails. But we have an even bigger problem to worry about." Sonic replied. "Seems like Breezy is going to be a really big headache for us from now on."

Once the group had gotten back together again in the valley below, Lupe told Sonic how they had tricked and beaten Team Hooligan.

"And all I had to do was shine a flashlight behind the chaos emerald so it would glow, and make a bunch of spooky noises and talk in a creepy voice." Lupe laughed. "I would have had those three running away with their tails between their legs if Knuckles hadn't jumped on them like a hyperactive hyena."

"Hheeeyyyyy, guuuyyyyyyss." Knuckles stated tiedly. "Hhooooooowww's iiiiiit gooooooing?" He almost tripped over a root that was obviously there.

"Looks like somebody just got down from being high." Sonic remarked. "Don't worry, Knucklehead. We'll get you a nice soft bed when we get back to Knothole."

"Sorry about all the damage we did to your village, Chief Lupe." Tails stated looking around at the explosion ridden canyon. "It's probably going to take you a real long time to get all of this repaired, huh?"

"Don't be silly, Tails." Lupe laughed. "That was the old caves we used to hide in during Robotnik's rule. We got the new city that just finished construction on the west side of the canyon. You save us all the costs of demolition of the old caves. Now, we can put our new swimming pool and gymnasium in."

Tails just stood there dumbfounded as Sleet and Fockerwolf brought the Tornado out.

"She's all refueled and ready to go." Sleet told them. "Have a nice trip back to Knothole Village."

"A safe journey my friends." Lupe exclaimed hugging the three of them. "I hope the emerald will be of some use to you."

"Hey, wait a sec." Sonic noted looking around. "Does anyone else get the feeling we're forgetting something?"

"Guys?" a voice called out in the caves. As a pink hedgehog with a hammer stumbled around in the darkness. "Where did everyone go? I need to use the bathroom."


	8. The Dreamamajig

The Dreamamajig

The group was having breakfast in the morning at Sally's villa. The group was in the dining room. Princess Sally came out in her pink nightgown. And she went to her chair and yawned. There were bags under her eyes and her hair is a tangled mess.

"Morning, Sal." Sonic said.

"Good Morning, Knuckles." Sally responded.

"I'm Sonic."

"Uh, yeah." She sat down at the table and put something in her mouth. "This breakfast is so rough."

"Princess," Amy said. "You're chewing on a towel." Then, she turned to Sonic. "Was she always like this?"

"No, Amy." Sonic replied. "It's not." He turned to Sally. "What's wrong, Sally?"

"It's just awful, Tails."

"I'm Sonic."

"Whatever." Sally yawned.

"It's seems like your completely exhausted." Bunnie said.

"I doubt I've been getting any sleep, Amy." Sally replied.

"Hey, I'm right here." Amy rebuked.

"I can see that, Bunnie." Sally grimaced.

"This is rather serious." Rotor stated. "I think I'll probably build something to help Sally get better shuteye."

"Why not check the mattress?" Knuckles asked.

"I doubt it's that simple, Knuckles." Rotor said. "I got it, I'll build the dreamamajig."

"The what now?" Sonic asked.

"The dreamamajig." Rotor explained. "It's a device that helps with sleep problems. I was able to get the plans to build on from Dr. Von Schlemmer." Rotor got up from his chair. "I better get started. Tails want to help?"

"Sure." Tails answered and the two headed out.

Meanwhile, a spy had seen what had went down from behind closed doors. She left the villa and turned on the communicator.

"Dr. Eggman." The spy stated. "Will you pick up?"

"I'm Doctor Robotnik, not Eggman." The doctor replied. "I hope you found something good."

"I had just found out, Doctor." The spy said. "That the Minister of Science had built a dream machine to help with insomnia."

"Excellent, I can use this information to help our cause to rebuild the Empire." Snively said.

"You better keep your end of the bargain." The spy stated.

"I will, I will. Just keep the information coming." Then, the spy signed out. Snively stood up in contemplation.

"Now, to work on some new badniks." He said as he went to the door and opened it up. Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts fell into the room. "Snooping as usual, I see."

"No, no, sir." Scratch said. "We didn't hear anything about Rotor's dream machine."

"Yeah, especially the part about insomnia." Grounder added.

"You, idiots, you just admitted on snooping." Coconuts said.

"Silence, you three." Snively stated. "I'm going to come up with a plan with the information in mind. So don't disturb me until I'm finished with it."

"Yes, your rottenness." The three answered. Then, Snively went to his quarters for the time being.

Rotor was working of the dreamamajig at that moment. It was a red contraption with several lights on it and a few dials on it. It was on wheels, so it could be moved from one location to another. Tails came up to him with some of the stuff, he asked for.

"Say Rotor," Tails asked. "How is the dreamamajig supposed to work anyway?"

"Well, it is supposed to simulate the conditions for Non-REM sleep until the person falls asleep." Rotor explained. "Once the device detects delta wave activity, it is programmed to shut off automatically; this will let the person's natural sleep cycle take over."

"Sounds a little complicated." Tails replied.

"Yeah." Rotor stated. "The thing is almost finished. I just need some oil for the dreamamajig first. It'll need 10-30X Oil. Can you get that Tails?"

"I'll be back as soon as I can." Tails said as he left. Rotor returned to working on the machine.

"Well, there isn't much work to be done yet." He said. "Other than polishing it." He turned to his chair. "Maybe I can catch up on some reading." Rotor sat back onto a chair and picked up a magazine and started reading it.

Meanwhile, widow bots came in from the ceiling above. They shoot some sticky thread and got Rotor. As Rotor looked at the assailant, the thread covered his mouth and the widows entangled him. A platform came down from the ceiling and crab bots hooked the dreamamajig up to the platform and pulled it up.

He remembered that he built tracking devices for each of the freedom fighters in case they got separated; it was a leftover from the resistance days. He reached for it and activated the tracking beacon as the bots took him and his machine away.

Tails returned later that day with the appropriate oil needed for the device. He looked in confusion at the empty room.

"Rotor?" Tails asked. "Where'd you run off to with the dreamamajig?" He looked around and saw a magazine laying on the ground. "There's no way he would have deliberately left a magazine on the ground. He's too clean for that. Somebody must have taken him." Then, he set the oil can down.

"But who would do that?"

Tails went over and saw that the security cameras are operational. He took one down and looked at the footage it had recorded. He saw the bots taking him away.

 _"Eggman is behind this."_ Tails thought. _"I have to alert Sonic and the others right away."_

Rotor was tied up in front of Snively while Scratch and Coconuts were holding on to him. Snively turned and looked at the dreamamajig.

"This is a very nice machine, you have here." Snively stated. "But I have a way to make it better."

"And how's that?" Rotor replied in a mad manner.

"Well, I say it would be much more effective as a weapon. Do that task for me, Rotor."

"No, I'm not going to do anything for you." Rotor rebuked him. Then, Snively put his hand behind his back.

"Perhaps I didn't make myself clear." Snively pulled out a gun and pointed it at him. "You WILL weaponize the dreamamajig." He stated more aggressively to him. "I'm not going to play games with you. That's what Uncle Julian did, and that's what led to his demise." Rotor said nothing. "Still don't believe me?" He turned to Grounder. "GROUNDER!"

"Yes, your rottenness?" Grounder asked.

"Hold up a plate." Snively replied.

"How come, Robotnik?" the bot asked as he held up a plate. Snively pointed the gun at the plate and pulled the trigger. The bullet had shattered the plate. "Hey, I just dusted that ceramic plate."

"Gather the pieces and fix it." Then, Snively turned back to Rotor and poked his nose with the barrel. "Now, are you going to cooperate or not?"

"Just one question." Rotor asked. "Why are you holding your gun sideways? It doesn't help with aim at all."

"It makes me more intimidating and cooler as a villain." He replied. "But that's just a pointless little tangent. Quit stalling and get to work, NOW!"

Tails was on the computer with Bunnie and Sonic behind him. He was looking for Rotor during that time.

"Tails, hurry up." Sonic answered.

"This is going to take time, Sonic." Tails replied. Sonic just tapped his foot on the ground.

"Sugarhog, Tails is doin' the best he can to find Rotor." Bunnie said. "Now would be a good time to get the dispatch together."

"I'll bring Tails and Knuckles with me." Sonic said.

"I don't think it would be a good idea to take Knuckles with ya."

"What do you mean?"

"Remember, Snively raised Knuckles."

"Oh, yeah." Sonic replied. "So, he can't go. I wonder where he is anyway."

"Maybe you can take Amy along with you." Bunnie answered. "You two can have some quality time togetha."

"Me and Amy?"

"That's right."

"No, it's nothing like that."

"Then, how come you're blushing?" She answered. Sonic had covered his face.

"Arrgh." He grimaced. Then, Tails had spotted the beacon on Rotor's tracking device.

"Got it." Tails said.

"Alright, gotta juice." Sonic replied. Then, Sonic and Tails went off to get Amy and find Rotor. Bunny was still there by herself.

 _"I really think Sonic needs a new catchphrase."_ She thought.

The dreamamajig had been converted into a weapon by the hands of Rotor. He was at gunpoint by Snively. Rotor dropped his tools. The dreamamajig, now had two straps so one can carry it on his back and a hose attached to it. On the other end was a long blaster.

"What is it?" Snively answered.

"It's finished." Rotor replied.

"Good." Snively replied. "Scratch, Grounder, throw him in the cell." Rotor knew if he moved Snively would shoot. The two robots came and grabbed him. "I want him to see me reclaim the Robotnik Empire, but not longer than that." The two took him away.

Snively went over and tried to pick up the dreamamajig. It was a little heavy. He turned over to the other robot.

"Coconuts," he said. "Help me get this thing on."

"Okay." Coconuts replied. He came over and help Snively get the thing on him.

"Finally…" Snively said. "The dreamamajig is heavier than it looks. But regardless, I can now carry out my plan. But first, I'll need a test subject." At that moment, Sonic, Tails, and Amy barged right into the front door.

"It's over, Eggman." Sonic stated.

"Oh, Sonic, perfect timing." Snively answered. "The dreamamajig has now been fully weaponized. Stand right there as I test it." Snively fired a blast at him. The beam came out as a purple colored lazer beam. "Badniks, take care of the fox and the hedgehog."

At that moment, buzz bombers and crab bots came into engage the three mobians. A few went to attack Sonic.

"Not that hedgehog, the other hedgehog." Snively pointed out. "Sonic is mine." The badniks moved off of Sonic and headed towards Amy and Tails. He turned to Sonic and started firing the dreamamajig at him.

"What are you planning to do with that contraption?" Sonic said while dodging.

"If you want to know, since I'll eliminate you, I will zapped all the world's leaders with it. This will cause them to sleep for a long time. I'll replace them with robots I can control with ease." Snively answered.

"There's a problem with the plan."

"The plan is flawless. How can you say there's a problem?"

"Your uncle already tried that and it failed." Sonic pointed out. "What makes you think it'll work a second time around, Eggman."

"It's Robotnik." Snively replied.

"Eggman."

"Robotnik."

"Eggman."

"Robotnik."

"Robotnik." Sonic said.

"Eggman." Snively replied. Then, Sonic chuckled. Snively got angry over falling for the switching dialogue trick. "Stand still you little blue rat!" He began to fire more aggressively.

"Geez, can't you take a joke?"

Tails pulled out his blaster and started to shoot down the buzz bombers. Amy ran up drawing her piko piko hammer and started smashing the crab bots. They weren't much of a fight for her. She was able to dodge the blasts that the buzz bombers shot.

"You're doing great, Amy." Tails said.

"Thanks, Tails." Amy replied. "Can you go free Rotor? I'll keep these bots busy."

"Sure thing." Tails replied. He found the stairway that lead to the cells. He headed toward the location but he noticed a roller coming his way. Tails ducked into the shadows as the roller came forward. It stopped and unfolded. It turned away as Tails pulled out a fusion cutter. He leapt onto the roller and cut it open.

Meanwhile at the cell, Scratch and Grounder were guarding where Rotor was being kept. Then, a roller came up and unfolded.

"Excuse me." The roller said. Scratch and Grounder looked at him.

"What is it?" Scratch asked him.

"I am here to relieve you of guarding the prisoner." The roller answered.

"Who said?" Grounder asked.

"Dr. Eh… Robotnik." He replied. Tails was nearby with a remote control and a microphone close to his mouth. He was the voice that was coming out of the roller. "He also asked you to scrub the bathroom."

"That sounds like Robotnik." Grounder said.

"Let's go." Scratch added. Then, the two robots headed away from the cell. The roller then proceeded to blast at the lock; unlocking the cell. Then, it shut down. Tails came out and open the cell.

"Tails!" Rotor answered.

"Rotor, we're here now." Tails replied. "Let's get moving. Sonic and Amy are near the entrance." Rotor grabbed Tails' hand and they started to leave. "I got the oil for you. What was it for anyway?"

"The downside to the dreamamajig is that when it operates it get hot; very hot." Rotor replied. "The oil was to prevent it from overheating."

Meanwhile, Sonic was now cornered and Amy is unable to reach him. Snively had the dreamamajig pointed right at him.

"Finally, you're cornered." Snively answered. "Sweets dreams, Hedgehog." He pulled the trigger and the pack exploded with fire out the back. No beam came out of the barrel. Snively looked back and saw the result. He became infuriated as he threw off the pack and started to kick. "You stupid…" Sonic was in shock.

 _"I'll pretend I didn't hear that."_ Sonic thought to himself. Amy went up to him while Tails and Rotor came up.

"The badniks are taken care of." Amy said.

"And I freed Rotor." Tails answered.

"Well, let's go then." Sonic replied. "We'll not waste any more time here." Then, the four left. At that moment, Scratch and Grounder arrived.

"Hey boss." Grounder said. Snively turned to them.

"WHAT IS IT!?" Snively shouted.

"Where's the cleaner?" Scratch asked. "We have to clean the bathroom like you asked."

"IT DIDN'T ASK YOU TO SCRUB THE BATHROOM!"

"We've been tricked, Grounder." Scratch said.

"Let's teach that roller a lesson." Grounder added. Then, Coconuts entered.

"Boss, the prisoner escaped." Coconuts stated. Snively's face turned red full of anger.

"I! HATE! THAT! HEDGEHOG!" Snively shouted into the air.

The next morning, the crew were at the table for breakfast. Rotor was upset, so Tails went up to him while he was having his morning coffee.

"What's wrong, Rotor?" Tails asked.

"Well because the dreamamajig is gone, Sally will have to endure more sleep problems." Rotor explained. "I should have better protected it."

"Don't feel bad, Rotor." Tails answered. "At least, you still have the plans to build a new one."

"Yeah, true. I just don't want the princess to…" Rotor said. Then, Princess Sally came out. She looked much better than yesterday.

"Good morning, everyone." Sally said.

"Sally?" Sonic asked. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah." Sally replied. "I feel a lot better now." Rotor was dumbfounded.

"But… but how!?" Rotor asked. "How were you able to recover from your sleep problems?"

"We found out what the problem was." Sally explained. "The mattress was too out-of-shape. So I went with Knuckles yesterday to buy a new one and the sleep problems disappeared." Then, Rotor twitched.

"Rotor, are you okay?" Tails asked. Then, he lost it.

"I think we should give him some space for a while." Sonic added stepping back away from him.


	9. Into the Void

Into the Void

"Are you sure this the right way, Dulcy." Sonic asked as he clinged to the young dragon's back. "I think we took a wrong turn at the last alp."

"Sonic, honey. I know my way around these mountains like the back of my claw." Dulcy replied looking over at the back of her right hand. "Oh that's new."

"You said that ten minutes ago." Sonic reminded Dulcy. "We should have been to Carnival Island by now. Amy will kill if we're late."

"Ah, come on stop worrying so much, Sonic." Dulcy replied snorting smoke from her nose. "It's not like I'm going to crash or anything."

"Watch where you're going?" Sonic shouted as they drew near a tall peak. Dulcy looked at it.

"Uh oh." She answered. "We're gonna…" Then, a circular blue portal opened right in front of them causing the two surprised flyers to disappear into the open rift. As they looked back they noticed the portal was orange now.

"Wow, that things closing fast." Dulcy stated.

"Dulcy, look out!" Sonic shouted. "You're gonna run into…" The dragon crashed into a grey rocky surface sending Sonic tumbling off of her.

"Whoa, that was your best landing yet." Sonic stated with sarcasism. "Are you alright?"

"It's okay, mom." She replied. "I'm just going to lay down a bit."

"Dulcy, snap out of it." Sonic added slapping her in the face. "We need to figure out where we are?"

"The cake is a lie, mom." The dragon replied with her eyes swirling. "Everybody knows that."

Shaking his head in digust, Sonic turned to look at the wasteland all around him. A bleak and barren tundra spread out as far as the horizon. The ground seemed to be a mix of gravel and crystal. The sky glowed with an eerie purple haze with occasional lightning flashes sparking between the ominous looking clouds.

"I don't think we're in Mobius anymore, Dulcy." Sonic said. "I just hope there's no yellow brick road with a robot and a strawman around here."

"Well, we aren't the only ones who got dragged in her." A voice said from behind them.

"Forsooth, what bringest yonder hedgehog and wyrm to this unholy place?" another replied.

Sonic turned around to see a small yellow squirrel with a bandolier and sword; he also saw a red armadillo with a very annoyed look on his face.

"So, you two got caught here too?" Sonic asked them. "Anyone know where we are?"

"I don't know, man. But it feels like we took the last train to weirdsville." The red armadillo answered. "I won't play this gig for all the dough on Mobius."

"Wait, a red armadillo and a gig?" Sonic stated. "You're Mighty from the Chaotix, aren't you. I loved your last album."

"And you must be Sonic the Hedgehog, the world famous hero." The Armadillo said, shaking hands with him. "So awesome to meet a rad dude."

"Well, I'm certainly not impressed." The squirreled snorted arrogantly crossing his arms in front his chest. "T'would not surpriseth me that thou hast been responsible for our abduction most untimely."

"And who are you supposed to be?" Sonic asked.

"It's the pizza guy, mom." Dulcy blerted out. The three just looked at her in a confused manner.

"Shut thine mouth, thou scaly knave." The squirrel snapped. "I doth be Sir Raymond the flying squirrel, knight of the court of Down Under.

"Hey, where's your buddy the talking moose?" Mighty commented. "And shouldn't there be two humans from the same country as Robotnik with funny accents chasing you."

"Oh, shut up, red one." Ray barked back. "I am a hero of the Robotnik Wars, and I will not be spoken to like that by a lowly minstrel."

"I know you. You're the stuffed up jerk who's marrying Sal." Sonic sneered. "It's a shame that the princess is marrying the Alvin instead of one of the other chipmunks."

"Now, CUT THAT OUT VILLIAN!" Ray roared about ready to grab his blade. "If thou dust not treat me with more respect, I shall most certainly cut thee in two."

"Now, now, now gentlemen. This is no time for yelling." A voice with a whisp called out to them from all around.

"Hey, who said that?" Mighty asked.

"Not me, mom."

"It is I. The greatest genius on Mobius." The voice answered. Suddenly, a hologram of a large bald head with a red mustache appeared before them. One that was very familiar to Sonic.

"Robutnik?! How the heck did you survive!? We saw you fried when the Doomsday device went kablooey!?"

"Oh, you must about my crazy twin brother, Julian." The insane sounding scientist replied, laughing like a loon.

"Clearly, It doth run in the family." Ray stated to Mighty.

"So, you're the hedgehog who sent Julian to the great beyond." The scientist grinned. "Thanks, you did me a big favor. He was kind of annoying."

"He's not the only one." Mighty replied to Ray. "Alright, man. Who are you?" He, then, said to the crazy scientist.

"I am the great Dr. Wrapnik, scientist extraordinaire." The scientist replied. "And soon to be master of all Mobius." He reached behind his back. "And this is my campanion, Mr. Puffykins." He pulled out a big pufferfish.

"Verily, this fiend must be talking to us from his laboratory outside of this strange place." Ray noted. "For why else, would he not gloat before us in person."

"Right you are, my acorn chopping friend." Warpnik gloated, mocking Ray. "For you are in the void, prison of the great and power Nagus."

"The Void? That's where the king's trapped." Sonic exclaimed. "Come on guys, we gotta find the king and rescue him." Sonic immediately zipped off through the endless crystalline tunnels. Looking at each other, in surprise, Mighty and Ray suddenly took off trying to keep up with their blue companion.

"Yo, Sonic. Wait up." The armadillo called out, rushing to keep up with the hedgehog. "Are you talking about King Acorn? Cause if he's trapped here, we gotta bust him out."

"For sooth, the father of my bride must be rescued with haste." Ray added suppressing a small grin. "Besides, bringing the king home will give me major points with the lovely Sally." Sonic simply glared at him. Suddenly, a loud roaring sound shook the cave. Several pairs of red glowing eyes opened up in the cave walls. As if from nowhere, nearly a dozen crystal creatures burst forth from the cave walls. Tall and bony looking, the sharp clawed beasts growled menacingly at the three heroes.

"Welcome, boys." A voice hissed seeming to come from everywhere. "Glad you can make it my humble domain."

"Nagus." Sonic growled noticing the reflection of the troll like wizard in the creatures' eyes. "Give us the king or you'll regret it."

"Well, that's certainly no way to treat a host." The wizard chortled. "I think I'll have my ice trolls teach you a lesson."

"Why does he call them ice trolls when they are made of crystal?" Mighty asked whispering to Ray.

"I say old boy, just go with it." Ray replied. One of them grinned.

"You mad, bro." The troll said.

"Maybe that's why they're called ice trolls." Mighty thought. One of the trolls lunged at Sonic with his sharp claws. But the hedgehog spindashed forward cutting the monster in half. Two more of the creatures dove at Mighty and Ray. One slashed crossed Mighty's hardened back shell leaving scratch marks on the otherwise undamaged plating.

"Oh, bright idea, trying to hurt an armadillo by attacking his shell." Mighty said as he balled up into a red sphere. Hurling himself at his attacker, he shattered the crystalline creature into shards.

"My friend, I tell you that violence is not the answer." Ray told the monster in a patronizing manner.

"Says the one who wanted to pulled his sword out first and ask questions later." Sonic remarked. The ice troll slashed the yellow squirrel across the chest, cutting his bandolier in two.

"THAT DOES IT!" The squirrel yelled angerly as he flew up into the air. "Have at thee, nave." Soaring down at the crystal monster, Ray drew his sword and with one quick swipe split his opponent in tow. Landing on the ground, he shot Sonic a smug look. "And that is how you taketh out the garbage, sir hedgehog."

As the three heroes fought bravely, more and more of the ice creatures poured in around them.

"Sonic, this is the end, man." Mighty noted smashing another one of his foes in the face with a fist. "We're surrounded and outnumbered."

"Not quite." Sonic noted. "It ain't over 'til the chili dog goes cold." Just then, a stream of flame shot overhead hitting several of the crystal monsters, melting them. The few surviving trolls fled down the caves, fearful for their miserable lives. "Dulcy, nice to have you back, girl." He told her gratefully, looking back towards her. "If it weren't for you, we would be… Whoa, what happened to you?"

"Sonic, what are you talking about?" the dragon asked impatiently. Before them stood a much shorter mobian looking dragon with leathery wings larger than her body and smaller scales forming hair-like spikes on her head.

"Zounds, yonder wyrm hath turned into a fair maiden." Ray replied dumbfounded. "It must be the dark sorcery of this place."

"Hey there, hot tamale." Mighty said, walking up to the young dragon looking her over. "What's a nice girl like you cooking in a place like this?"

"We can talk about that later, red boy." Dulcy remarked stroking a claw underneath Mighty's chin. "Right now, let's find a way out of this crazy hall of mirrors."

"Nagus' castle is down this way." Sonic pointed running down a tunnel to the left. "I've been here before. So, just follow me and watch your step."

I don't trust you, to lead me to a privy." Ray remarked going to the right. After he disappeared, they heard a toilet flush from above them. Ray suddenly returned, his fur dripping wet and a funny smell coming off him. "Lead the way." He grumpled shooting Sonic a murderous glare. As the four mobians headed down the tunnel, Nagus watched them from his crystalline throne.

"Well, look's like the heroes are on their way." Nagus laughed. "Warpnik, you have done well in transporting them here." The wizard hissed looking at the reflection of the crazy scientist in the crystal. "Is the device ready to transport me back to Mobius when everything is prepared?"

"As you wish, Master Nagus." Warpnik giggle insanely stroking his fingers across his pet pufferfish. "Once the hedgehog and his friend are in place, I shall bring you here and leave them in that crystal nightmare forever."

"You know only one will be trapped here, right?" Nagus noted. "I need to switch places with someone from the corporal world to prevent me from turning to crystal."

"Oh well, so what if the others get trapped there?" Warpnik asked shrugging that the thought.

"That will be irrelevant." Nagus replied to the doctor. "Then, looks like your going to have some company in here your highness." He chortled looking at a middle-aged mobian chipmunk frozen entirely in crystal. "At least, you won't be lonely for the rest of eternity." The villain started to laugh when he noticed the four mobians entering his castle.

"Well, looks like they've come at last." Nagus chortled as he waved his hand in the air. "Let's see how quickly we can get to the point.

"Nagus' throne room is this way." Sonic told them pointing down a long corridor. "Try to stay together and watch out for traps." The four heroes raced down the hall, just as a bunch of small panels opened up on the wall. A rain of arrows showered out onto Sonic's team causing the four of them to dodge shot over shot.

"Woah, look out guys." Sonic exclaimed flipping over several of the arrows. "These things look like they've been tipped with poison."

"How do you know that?" Mighty asked.

"The tips of the arrowheads are shiny with some kind of liquid." Sonic said. "Sally told me that's a sure sign that the barbs have been covered in poison."

"These things can't hurt me." Mighty boasted curling up into a ball. He launched forward rolling along the floor as the shafts simply bounced right off his shell.

"Don't be so boastful, nave." Ray stated, flying to the left and right to dodge the shots. "It's not as easy for the rest of us as it is for you."

"You guys, are too worried. These things can't hurt me." Dulcy boasted flying through the corridor before she ran into a wall.

"But that can." Ray replied.

"Look ma, it's an obstacle course." Dulcy said dizzily; her eyes swirling around in her head. "But I don't wanna go to gym class."

"End of the road, Nagus." Sonic yelled arriving at the end of the tunnel, and facing the wizard.

"Yes, for you that is." Nagus replied clenging his fist. "WARPNIK, ACTIVATE THE MACHINE!"

"At once, your rottenness." Warpnik grinned pulling a lever on the console before him. A vase falls onto Nagus.

"Wrong lever, Warpnik." He answered.

"Oh, sorry sir." Warpnik replied. "Pulling the lever." Suddenly a column of bright light surrounded Sonic and Nagus. The hedgehog felt like he was being torn apart as the light coursed over his body.

"What's going on here?" Sonic called out as he felt a sharp pain in his chest. "WHOAA!"

"SONIC! GET OUT OF THERE!" Mighty called out. Unfolding his body, the armadillo leapt straight at the hedgehog knocking him out of the column of light. As the two mobians rolled over to the side of the floor unharmed, Nagus was left standing in the light alone.

"WARPNIK, YOU IDIOT, WHAT'S GOING ON!?" Nagus shouted as he felt his body being torn apart. "TURN OFF THE MACHINE BEFORE I…" Suddenly, the wizard vanished into the light column and the unconscious form of Dr. Warpnik was dropped in his place.

"OOOOOOOh, fishies." Warpnik muttered rolling out of the light and onto the floor.

"I say I believe Warpnik was trying to trap us here and free Nagus." Ray exclaimed, helping Dulcy up off the floor and getting her towards the column of light. "I doth believe we should make an exit before yon portal closes on us."

"Yeah, let's grab the king and split." Mighty agreed as he and Sonic grabbed the frozen form of the king and made of the column. "Let's blow this joint before we're trapped in crystal forever." The four of them vanished into the light. The column, then, vanished leaving a confused and dazed Warpnik rolling around on the floor.

Sonic and the other three reappeared in the mountains surrounding Soleanna. The crystals on the king began to melt off him.

"Whoa, it looks like Warpnik's gizmo just dropped us in a random spot." Mighty noted looking around. "I wonder if we're still on West Side Island."

"I say, it looks like the king is coming to." Ray said as the crystals melted off the king. "I hope he is not hurt in anyway."

"He looks fine to me." Mighty added. "Your highness, how are you feeling?"

"My boy, this feeling is what all true warriors strive for." The king noted, speaking in a deeper voice than Sonic remembered. "I wonder what's for dinner."

"Uh oh, looks like the king's body is okay, but I can't say the same thing for his mind." Dulcy answered.

"That's nothing; look what's happened to you, babe." Mighty stated admiring the dragon's new form. "You somehow got turned from a big, scary, and fire-breathing lizard to a total hottie."

"Hey, I resemble that remark." Dulcy snapped back, making Mighty regret what he just said.

"For sooth thou hast done well in rescuing the king from the void, Sonic." Ray admitted grudgingly. "But what do you think did happen to the villain, Nagus?"

"I don't want to admit it." Sonic stated looking at the sky, nervously. "But I think we just set him loose on Mobius once more."

"We will need the chaos emeralds to protect us." The king added, making everyone else stare at him in annoyance. "My boy, you better go and get them."


	10. Ghost of a Chance

Ghost of a Chance

"Father!" Sally squealed in delight embracing the king. "I'm so happy to see you again. I can't believe you're back."

"My girl, I'm overjoyed to see you once again." He smiled at the sobbing princess. "Nothing will distract me now from being a good king and a good father… I wonder what's for dinner."

"Well," the princess talked with her newly returned father. "Tails and Rotor were questioning Sonic about what had happened."

"So this Warpnik pulled you and Dulcy into the void to rescue Nagus?" Rotor asked, scratching his chin with his claw. "Obviously, the wizard had bribed Julian's cousin with a promise of wealth and power, if he set him free."

"Yeah, but old Warpnik won't be able to enjoy it." Sonic chuckled. "Nagus left him high and dry, trapped in the Void for the rest of eternity."

"Wow, Sonic. I can't believe you outsmarted Nagus." Tails noted. "But why didn't the king turn to crystal when you brought him out? And why has Dulcy turned into a regular Mobian like the rest of us?"

Turning away from his conversation with Princess Sally, the king reached into his pocket and pulled out a strange and green looking gemstone.

"My boy, this chaos emerald is what Warpnik was striving for." The king said as he handed the gem over to Tails. "My guess is its weird magic is what stopped me from turning to crystal."

"Wowie, another chaos emerald." Tails exclaimed looking at his own reflection in the gem. "Just how many of these are there?"

"I think we should get it back to the lab to run some test." Rotor said gazing at the gemstone. He thought he saw a spooky face reflecting on the gem, but when he turned around there was nothing there. "Whoa guys, did you see that?"

"Stop seeing things, keed." Sonic replied. Rotor looked back at the chaos emerald and the spooky face wasn't there.

"I got to lay off the chili dogs." Rotor replied.

"Sonic, I want you to join me and my father at the celebration tonight." Sally commented, smiling as she looked back at the recently returned King Acorn. "We will be holding a great banquet in honor of the return of Soleanna's great king.

"Soleanna? Isn't the city in ruins? We lived in Mobotropolis." King Acorn asked.

"Father, we have a lot of catching up to do." Sally exclaimed rolling her eyes. "But in the meantime, we have your homecoming party to attend."

It was a grand celebration that night with banners and streamers decorating every city block in the capital. Street performers and musicians sang and danced for the amusement of all. In the town square, many dignitaries and diplomats spoke with the king and welcomed him home from his long exile.

"Your majesty, the people of Mobius are grateful to have you back." Lupe greeted him, bowing politely to King Acorn. "I am certain our two nations will only know friendship under your just rule once again."

"Why thank you, my dear." The king replied looking around. "But tell me, do you happen to know when they will be serving dinner?" While the king was speaking with the guests, Amy and Bunnie were off at the side of the town square looking at an ugly old tree that had been planted in the middle of the village green.

"Eww. Bunnie, what's that creepy looking old tree over there for?" Amy asked with a look of disgust on her face. "Why don't they just chop it down? It looks sick."

"Ah, come on now, sugar." Bunnie told her. "Y'all mean to tell me you've never heard of the cursed tree of the Lost Brigade?"

"No, what's that?" Amy asked feeling seriously dark vibes coming off of the sickly looking tree.

"It was planted in honor of Captain Boom's Brigade, one of the best fighting units in the Great War." Bunnie said, narrowing her eyes and trying to talk in a creepy voice. "Legend has it that Captain Boom was a cruel and bloodthirsty commander. His brigade destroyed whole villages and killed innocent Mobians who had surrendered without a fight."

"Talk about heartless." Amy commented her eye twitching in shock.

"King Acorn's father got fed up with Boom's insubordination and so abandoned him and his unit to die." Bunnie continued. "Several family members of lost soldier in the unit demanded that this tree be planted as a memorial to their loved ones, but the tree grew all twisted and gnarled."

"Why would the tree grow up so sickly?" Amy asked looking at the monstrous plant. "Was it something in the soil."

"Nobody knows." Bunnie answered. "It is said that the spirits of Captain Boom and his soldiers dwell inside the very bark of the tree watching and waiting to strike back at the royal family who betrayed them."

"That's definitely a good story to tell at a celebration in honor of the king." Amy replied sarcastically. "Why don't we go over and get some punch and stop looking at this creepy old thing."

Bunnie nodded still laughing but as the two went over to the refreshment table. Amy couldn't stop staring at the horrible looking plant. After a while, she noticed a dark aura begin to form around the plant. It started off small at first, but quickly seemed to grow taking on a life all its own.

It was, then, that Amy noticed several of Antione's guards had brought out the glass case displaying the recovered chaos emeralds. As they set them down near the tree, she noticed the cloud of dark energy really flare up. The bark seemed to crumble away instantly and dark shadows and shapes began to more around everyone and everything at the party unnoticed.

"Uh, Bunnie?" Amy said nervously, looking at the strange lights flying all around them. "I think that tree might be really haunted."

"Oh lighten up on the drama sugar." Bunnie answered, dismissively. "We have a party to enjoy." The dark shapes seemed to coil around several of the guest at the party. It was, then, that Amy began to notice some of the guest were acting unusual.

"Ah, Rotor. Why did you dump that punch on me?" Sally shouted with her skirt soaked in the stuff. "This skirt is very hard to clean."

"Well excuuuuse me, princess." Rotor replied sticking his tongue out at her. "Can't take a little water, Sally?"

"Rotor, I can't believe you said that." The princess snapped in disgust. "Such rude language isn't like you." While the two of them were arguing, Amy heard another fight break out behind her.

"You gonna make me do it, Knucklehead!?" Sonic growled glaring at the red echidna. "I won't apologize to you, even if you were the last guardian on Mobius."

"I'm going to make you eat those word, you slimy blue porcupine." Knuckles barked back holding his fists, cracking them in anger. "One more word out of your big mouth, and I will send you flying from here to Down Under."

"Amy, girl. What the heck is going on here?" Bunnie asked her. "Sounds like every boy at the party has gone plum loco?"

"I think Boom and his ghosts have busted out of the tree." Amy said. The tension in her voice was rising. "We gotta do something before everybody is affected."

"Well, sugar. I don't think us, lady folk, have nothing to worry about." Bunnie responded. "Looks like Tails isn't affected either." Tails just walked by Amy and then flipped her skirt up.

"Spoke too soon." Amy squealed from embarrassment pulling her skirt back down. "Gather the rest of the girls together, we're gonna bust some ghosts." The two quickly raced around the square gathering up what sane females were left. The rest were either screaming, crying, hiding under the table, or ran away.

"This was all we could find?" Amy asked desperately seeing only Sally, Lupe, and Dulcy. The dragon, herself, was now sporting a purple and white jumpsuit. "We're going to have a hard time exorcising these ghosts from our friends."

"Hey girl, we're better than nothing." Dulcy snapped flexing her wings angerly. "Give Sally an eye five minutes and will have all these spooks smashed."

"The spirits are most restless tonight." Lupe said.

"No duh, thank you miss obvious." One of the males within earshot of them called out. "You wimply little females aren't gonna do diddly-squat to us fighting soldiers." Suddenly an anger flared up in all five ladies. They're eyes burning with the red hot temper from the possessed jerk's sexist remark.

"Did he just say what I thought he said." Dulcy growled angerly.

"It was unwise to make such a flippant remark." Lupe snarled wiping some of the icing from a nearby cake as war paint.

"You're going to wish you never open your mouth, ghost boy." Sally chittered in rage.

"Y'all won't be comin' back, now you hear." Bunnie said slapping her fist into her metal hand. "Girls," Amy said raising her hammer. "Let's take out some trash."

"We'll teach you girls not to interfere." The possessed Sonic told them with his eyes glowing red. "Boys, let's get 'em."

Everything exploded a mad frenzy. Rotor lunged at Sally slamming his claw into the ground as the princess jumped back.

"I can't believe you're doing this old friend." Sally said sadly. "After all, we've been through together."

"Sorry, but Rotor's not in right now." The possessed walrus snarled chopping towards the princess with his large tusks. "Please leave a message at the sound of the beep." As he bit towards Sally, the princess picked up a plank from one of the shattered tables. His attack pushed his teeth down into the solid wood.

"There." Sally explained. "Here's something to chew on. But really, you need more fiber in your diet."

"Mphh, mphh, mphh." Rotor growled incomprehensibly trying to chew the wood to pieces getting splitters in his teeth. Sally jumped up and spin kicked Rotor in the side of the head, sending the mechanic tumbling over.

Meanwhile, Lupe was facing down Tails, an angry fox, who spun in the air over her head. Going around in circles kicking her in the back of the head when she isn't looking.

"What's the matter, Lupe?" Tails asked. "Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself."

"I'm not hitting myself, you are." Lupe rebuked angerly. "My you ghosts, are as bright as a burnt out bulb."

"That's not bright at all." The possessed Tails said. "That's what you thing, injun. Me gonna scalp you really good."

"Okay, that does it furball." Lupe growled with her fangs bearing. "Time to hunt some fox." As Tails flew around and around her head, Lupe closed her eyes. When she sensed Tails near, she lunged out with the butt end of his spear, catching the two-tailed mobian on the forehead and knocking him out.

"Well, well, well." Knuckles snapped swinging his spiked gloves at Bunnie. "Looks like I'm going to win myself a lucky rabbit's foot."

"Ah, y'all just being offensive now, sugar." Bunnie remarked. "And you ain't gonna like what I'm gonna have to do to y'all." Knuckles jumped forward trying to head butt the cyborg rabbit. Bunnie kicked the angry echidna in the noggin sending his flying him backwards.

"So, think you're gonna get me that way." Knuckles chuckled. "Well, I'm going under." He dug down into the ground, disappearing from view. Bunnie looked around but saw no trace of him.

"Now, where'd that annoying dreadhead go?" she said. "Knuckles, y'all come out now you hear?" Suddenly she felt the ground open behind her and felt a gloved hand grab her behind.

"Look, I got a rabbit's tail." Knuckles called out yanking downward on Bunnie's tail. "Does this mean I'm gonna have good luck?"

"OUCH! That hurts, scalliewag." Bunnie cried out in pain. "I'm gonna teach you to mess with a Southern lady." Knuckles began popping out of the ground in several spots. Bunnie dove at him with her organic fist trying to hit him without hurting him. Knuckle continually avoided her attacks, making faces, and sticking his tongue out.

"Nya nya, can't hit me." Knuckles stated blowing a raspberry. "You're even slower than Sonic."

"That doesn't make any sense, sugar." She said. Knuckles paused thinking about.

"Wait, that didn't come out right." He replied. Bunnie took advantage of his moment's pause to send him flying back down the hole.

"Y'all come out of there, sugar." Bunnie said sticking her head down the hole. Suddenly a pair of glove hands grabbed onto her ears and yanked her down the hole. Several explosions of dirt could be seen shooting out of the holes as the two fought. Finally, a ripping sound followed by Bunnie's scream before the surprised rabbit was sent shooting back up out of the hole in her underwear.

"You little pervert, that was my best dress." The pissed off mobian growled. Pulling her robotic fist up, she thrusted it into the ground. Shaking the earth and causing the surprised echidna to pop out of the center hole. "Got cha." Bunnie grabbed Knuckles by the throat with her metal hand and held him up into the air. "Lights out, sugar." She exclaimed before punching him with her other hand.

Amy felt dizzy as Sonic ran around and around her in circles leaving a blue trail that never seemed to be endless.

"I'm getting dizzy." Amy said holding her head and closing her eyes. "Sonic, please stop it. I don't want to hurt you."

"Hurt me?" The ghost replied with Sonic's lips not moving. "That's a laugh. You couldn't catch me if you tried, slow mo." Amy tried to block out the whirling blue vortex around her and concentrating.

 _"Sonic's mouth isn't moving."_ Amy thought. _"So, that means the ghost is having a hard time controlling him. If I can just disrupt his concentration a bit, Sonic's will power should overwhelm it."_

"Hey, you slimy spook." Amy called out defying, raising her piko piko over her head. "How would you like a face full of hammer."

"Fat chance, you pink tramp." The ghost replied, angerly. "You'd never hurt your precious Sonokku."

"Sonic, this is going to hurt me a lot more than it's going to hurt you…" Amy said.

"You're not going to do it." The ghost replied. "No, you wouldn't."

"It's hammer time." Amy replied as she swung the hammer downward.

"Oh crap." The ghost said as it slammed down on his noggin. Looking dizzy Sonic turned to faced Amy. A small smile on his face appeared.

"Ames, you broke the spell without a kiss." Sonic said, his eyes spinning in his head. "Way past cool." He collapsed onto the ground. "Can someone get me the number of that chili dog truck?"

Suddenly, the remaining mobian males all swarmed in on the girls. But just as they were about to rip them to shreds, a thin flame shot down from above driving the attacking mob back.

"Leave my friends alone bozos." Dulcy called out, spewing a stream of fire at them. "Or you are gonna get burned." The terrified mobians ran in the other direction as strange white forms began to rise out of all of the males.

"Amy, look it's the ghosts." Sally said pointing upwards. "They're coming out of all their victims."

"Indeed, we have exorcised the fowl spirits." Lupe said triumphantly holding her spear above her head.

"Eww, they look just like those ghosts from that one video game with the plumbers." Dulcy remarked. "Except for the creepy bug eyes."

"Doesn't matter, what they look like, sugar." Bunnie added. "We still whooped their butts good."

"That's you think." A deep voice growled angerly. Suddenly, all of the ghosts came together merging into a single giant ghost with fangs and a tongue grossly slobbering out of its mouth.

"Eww, that's just disgusting." Dulcy replied staring down at the ugly spook.

"So, y'all that must be General Boom." Bunnie replied looking up at the ghost. "back to get y'all's revenge."

"That's right, until you silly little girls interfered." Boom roared. "And now, King Boomboo shall devour your souls." The five girls looked at each other before bursting out laughing. "What's so funny?" He demanded.

"King Boomboo? That's the stupidest name ever." Sally replied trying to stop herself from laughing. "Where did you come up with that? After reading a comic book?"

"STOP IT! I'M A GENERAL!" the ghost roared. "MY NAME IS AS BRILLIANT AS MY STRATEGY!"

"Sugar, that sounds like the name I'd see on a cheap B-film." Bunnie added. "Y'all should stop watchin' the late night monster movies."

"SILENCE! I COMMAND YOU TO STOP THIS INSTANT!" the ghost cried out even more furious than before. "I'll make you wish you never messed with the West Side Butcher." The ghost lunged at them barring his fangs. The four girls jumped backwards.

"Here, why don't you try this on for size?" Ducly said raising a gloved hand and spitting a ball of fire into it. She pitched it towards him, hitting the ghost square between the eyes. "Eat napalm, punk." The ball exploded on contact, burning the spirit's face.

"AAHHHHH! You filthy dragon." King Boom roared swing his tongue lick a club and slamming the dragon into a nearby wall.

"It's okay, ma." Dulcy said as she saw stars spinning her head. "I'm ready to go to bed now."

"Foul spirit, I shall cleanse this world of your presense." Lupe snarled shoving her spear's tip into the spectral form. "Everyone knows that evil spirits are weak to the metal iron." The ghost turned to her and laughed.

"I'm no fairy, kid." The ghost stated. "But thanks for playing." King Boom spat out venom at her, sending the wolf pack chief flying backwards.

"Eww, I've been slimed." Lupe said clearing the snot like substance off her clothes and looking down at her chest. "This is worse than being in a wet t-shirt contest."

Bunnie and Sally jumped at the ghost but went right through him.

"So the two of you, think you can hurt me?" the ghost roared with laughter. "Who's foolish now? I am invincible."

"Actually, none of us think we can beat you." Sally added. A small smile forming on her face.

"We were trying to keep you distracted, sugar." Bunnie remarked.

"From what?" He asked; then, he fell over in pain. Behind him, he saw Amy Rose raising her charged hammer over the cursed tree. Bringing it down in one mighty swing.

"NOOOOO!" the ghost roared. "STOOOOP!" Amy Brought the hammer with a mighty crash, sending the tree toppling over revealing a purple stuck in the wood. Amy quickly reached out plucking the emerald from the stump.

"Bye-bye, Boomboom." Amy remarked holding up the emerald and winking at the ghost. "See you on the other side."

"IT CAN'T END THIS WAY!" he shouted as he was fading away in a swirl of smoke. "MY REVENGE!" The ghost vanished with a popping sound. Amy ran over to her battered and dizzied friends.

"Is everybody, okay?" Amy asked them, helping Lupe back to her feet. "You all did a great job distracting him while I smashed the tree."

"I'm all right, sugar." Bunnie said. "Nothing hurt but my pride." She looked down at her torn clothing.

"I'm okay, ma." Dulcy said. "But is it time to go to school?" Sally just splashed some water on her. "Wait, what happened? Did we beat him?"

"The spirits must have been drawing power from the chaos emerald within the tree." Lupe said, pulling more goo off of herself. "The emerald must have been a war trophy Boomboo brought back from a battle and one of his family member buried it in the soil next to the tree seed as a memorial."

"So, with the emerald gone. The ghosts simply crossed over." Sally sighed. "And so, that's the end of King Boomboo." Just then, a small hovercar came flying in and a hedgehog with a mustache got out.

"Hey, what's going on here?" Uncle Chuck asked looking around and seen all of the battered males and the streets completely trashed. "Did I miss something?" At that moment, all five girls suddenly fell over laughing hysterically.

"Oh, we just ran into trouble." Amy commented with a smile. "But it didn't stand a ghost of a chance."


	11. The Fight for the Chao

The Fight for the Chao

Amy had called the group together with Sally's approval. She had them seated outside in the gardens where they can talk in nature.

"What is it, Amy?" Sonic asked

"I was working on my abilities when I ended up getting a vision." Amy replied.

"What kind of vision?" Knuckles asked.

"I saw invaders coming in to a chao garden and the garden became empty."

"What are chao?" Tails asked.

"There are those cute little bubbly things that kids keep as pets." Bunnie replied.

"No, they are more than that." Amy rebuked her. "They are creatures with magical power."

"Well, then. How come I've never seen a chao perform magic tricks?"

"They are completely powerless outside of the garden."

"Anyway," Sonic answered breaking up the fight. "What else was in your vision?"

"I also saw a village in the forest where everyone seems to know Sonic."

"Wait, I was raised in the village of Knothole." Sonic stated. "So, you saying the chao garden you're seeing is in Knothole?"

"I think so."

"Well, how come we never found one near Knothole?"

"It was too dangerous to leave the village, sugarhog." Bunnie replied.

"I was never on West Side Island during Robotnik's reign, so I don't know the situation there." Amy remarked. "What I was going to say was, that the chao gardens are very well hidden. And you need to go to specific locations marked by signs and perform specific actions to enter them. A chao garden has two entrances."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Sonic asked. "Let's find a chao garden."

"I can't believe you're going to try and find one." Bunnie said. "Chao gardens are a fairy tale."

"I'll bring you along with us to prove you wrong." Amy added.

"Wait, what!?" Bunnie stated. "Now, what a minute." The five of them headed out of the villa and headed to Knothole. Uncle Chuck entered the room looking for them.

"Sonic, Sonic…" Charles called. "Oh, where is he?" He continued to look around. _"I was going to bring Sonic along on a fishing trip and I know the perfect spot too. Oh well, I guess I have to go by myself."_

Meanwhile, the crew were in the forest nearby Knothole. The five were looking around the area looking for any signs for a garden of some sort.

"We're on a wild goose chase looking for a chao garden." Bunnie said. "It's a fairy tale."

"Hey, Amy." Knuckles asked. "We can't find a garden."

"You're supposed to look for the chao ring first." She answered.

"And what is it supposed to look like?"

"It's supposed to look like a ring of flowers." Then, sonic came up.

"You mean like that over there?" Sonic asked pointing with his thumb. Amy headed over and saw a ring of flowers.

"That's it." Amy said. "Next, all of us have to stand in the center of the ring." All of the group came over.

"I don't know about this." Bunnie said.

"Come on, Bunnie." Knuckles replied. "What's the worst that could happen?"

"Oh, all right, Knuckles." The whole group stepped into the ring.

"What do we do now?" Sonic asked.

"Now, we wait." Amy replied. It wasn't long before they started to her what sounded like music from a flute and a harp. There was a beautiful vocal accompanying them.

"What's that?" Tails asked.

"That's the song of the chao." Amy said. "It's our cue to leave the ring. We need to follow the music to the doorway." They followed her as she followed the sound of music until they came to a doorway. It was a solid door made of oak wood. It had no window in it and it had a bronze handle.

"So, is this the door?" Tails asked.

"It should be." Amy said as she grabbed a hold of the handle. "Here goes nothing." As she gently pulled the door open, a gentle magical energy came out. And they saw a tunnel with light at the other end. Amy guided the group to the other side.

As they came out, they saw a lush and beautiful garden with a lovely feeling to it. They found plenty of chao wandering around the garden playing with each other. In their immediate area was a large pond with a waterfall nearby and small trees dotted the landscape.

The chao, themselves, was small puffy winged beings. They had a small orb above their heads telling of their mood. Some were playing, others were sleeping, and some were playing the music that the group was hearing. Of course, the group couldn't understand what they were saying. It sounded like cute-sounding gibberish.

"Oh my stars." Bunnie stated in shock. "They actually exist."

Then, the chao began to notice the newcomers and they stopped what they were doing and looked at them. One of the chao went up to Sonic and hugged his leg. Sonic just patted him on the head. From seeing that, the chao continued to do what they were doing earlier.

"Well, they are cute though." Sonic said. "I'm a little worried that Eggman will try to find this place and try to take advantage of them."

"I know he's not going to do that." Knuckles answered him.

"How do you know that?"

"I remember Snively telling me about what happened when Julian encountered a chao." Knuckles said. "Julian chucked the poor Omachao into the robotisizer."

"That's horrible." Amy replied in shock.

"At that point, Snively said that he isn't going to the chao. It's so he won't get into any trouble with them."

"What can be troubling about chao?" Sonic asked.

"It's not what the chao can do per say." Knuckles answered. "But what they could do."

"Who's they?" Sonic asked in curiosity. The chao stopped what they were doing and faced the east. They saw two great lights heading towards them with six smaller lights.

"Wait, could it be them?" Amy asked.

"Who's they?" Sonic asked a second time.

"We're about to find out." Bunnie replied.

"I think it's the two lights there." Tails said. They saw the smaller lights revealed themselves as angel chao. At this moment, every single chao began to bow to the two larger lights as they revealed themselves.

The two were chao. But unlike the others, they were the same-size as Sonic and his crew and had large butterfly wings. The first was a white chao that had a royal blue uniform on and a golden crown on his head. The other was a red chao that wore a beautiful green dress and had a silver tiara on her head.

"Are you…" Amy asked. "The royal chao?"

"You are correct, young mobian." The white chao stated. "We are the king and queen of all of the chao in the gardens."

"Cool, we know some royalty ourselves." Sonic said.

 _"Oh my god,"_ Knuckles thought. _"They can actually speak our language?"_

"Sonic…" Bunnie replied.

"That's all right." The red one replied. "I am known as Titania. And this is my husband, Oberon."

"A pleasure." Bunnie said.

"It would be nice to have visitors to our fair garden." Titania said. "But we are now having troubles."

"What kind of trouble?" Tails asked.

"Our chao subjects have been starting to disappear." Oberon explained.

"I had a vision about that." Amy said.

"You have come from seeing the vision?" Titania asked.

"Yes."

"Come, please help us."

"We'll find the lost chao and return them." Sonic replied.

"Thank you, kind strangers." Oberon stated. "The most recent disappearances happened over the hills to the West."

"We'll start heading over there now." He replied as he headed off.

 _"I'm never going to think about chao the same way ever again."_ Bunnie thought.

Meanwhile, Bark was holding a bag with several chao inside of it. During that time, Nac was pointing his gun at some chao scaring them.

"Now listen, get in the bag or somebody's gonna get hurt." Nac said. "I'm a very excellent shot." Bark went over to the chao and picked them up. He just put them in the bag.

"Boss, how many chao does the guy need?" Bark asked.

"I don't know many Nagus needs for this magic target practice he's doin'." Nac answered. "Let's just fill up the bag, we can count 'em once we leave this place."

"Hey guys," Bean said. "Watch this." The two looked over and saw Bean juggling five chao while he was on a unicycle. After the weasel and the bear looked at each other, Nac just shot the wheel on the unicycle making it have a flat tire. Bean lost his balance as he caught the chao. "You two are no fun." He put the five in the bag.

"You have to stop goofing around." Bark stated to him. Bean pulled on the sides of his own mouth to taunt Bark.

"Why so serious?" Bean asked in reply.

"Will you guys knock it off?" Nac rebuked them. "We're gonna get caught if we're found." It wasn't long after that, when Sonic and his group found them. "Well, look what we have here. It's the loser squad."

"We only lost to you once." Sonic stated. "We're tied."

"You're gonna claim this is a tie breaker, eh?" Nac asked. "I'll see to it that my team will win over yas."

"I'm just saying you aren't going to leave with those chao."

"Yes we are, pinhead." Bark answered.

"Who are you calling, pinhead?" Sonic rebuked.

"Release the chao at once!" Amy shouted.

"You're gonna have to beat us to get them back." Nac stated. He pointed his gun at them and started shooting at them. The party split off into two groups and they started to fight. Nac was facing against Sonic and Amy; Bean was facing against Tails and Bunnie; Knuckles was facing off against Bark.

* * *

Meanwhile, Uncle Chuck was out on the shoreline by the lake. He was in fishing gear and was standing out on the water with the fishing rod in hand and the line was cast. He turned to the purple cat and his frog that was with him.

"Caught anything yet?" Charles asked.

"Nope." The cat replied.

"I guess we're not lucky right now." Then, he tried to pull the line back and it wouldn't budge. "Never mind, I think I got the big one." Uncle Chuck pulled on the line and reeled it in. It turned out to be an old boot. Then, he sighed. "It's been one of those days."

"Yep."

* * *

Sonic rushed towards Nac as he pulled his gun out. He spin dashed zoom by him to the wall behind him. It knocked over a boulder. Nac had to dodge out of the way; he didn't see Amy's hammer and she whacked him head on. It slammed him right into the wall.

Knuckles kept dodging Bark's charges as Bark was smashing the rocks he was using as barriers. Knuckles flipped up the gloves exposing his fingers. As Bark charged towards him again, Knuckles ducked and did a leg sweep. He managed to trip Bark.

"I will admit, you're strong." Knuckles stated. "But that's the only advantage you got against me. There's no way you'll be able to win with what you're doing."

"I'll beat you to a bloody pulp." Bark answered. "Then, you'll eat those words. There's no way you can overpower me."

"I don't need to overpower you." Knuckles answered running forwards. "I just have to hit the right spots." Bark rushed forward with a bull rush. Knuckles moved to the side and struck him five times. Then, jumped away. Bark turned to face him but noticed he was completely paralyzed.

"What the hell did you just do!?" Bark shouted.

"Something I don't get to use often." Knuckles replied. He just knocked over Bark by pushing afterwards.

Tails was dodging the explosives Bean was juggling towards him. Tails had used his blaster from the buzz bomber tail to fire at Bean in return. Then, Bean just remembered something.

"Hold on, time out." Bean stated and fled to Bark and Nac. "Guys."

"What is it, Bean?" Nac replied.

"If the three of us are fighting Sonic and his team, who's guarding the bag full of chao?" Bean remarked.

"Oh, crap." Nac stated. Then, Bunnie returned and threw the empty sack at them. And she also brought the two royal chao with her too.

"So, you are the intruders." Oberon proclaim. "Leave this place and never return; or suffer the consequences."

"And what are the consequences?" Nac asked.

"We will turn you into toads." Titania stated.

"There's no way you two can ever do that upon us." Bark shouted in anger.

"That's not a good idea." Bean replied. At that moment, the two royals zapped Nac and Bark with a rainbow-colored beam of light. And the two turned into toads, exactly as they said.

"Any more unintelligent remarks, duck?" Oberon asked Bean.

"Eh… nope." Bean replied, picking up the toads and their equipment. "We'll be leaving now." Then, he ran off. The royals turned to Sonic and his team.

"Well done." Oberon stated. "You stopped those villains from kidnapping the chao and you have saved the day."

"You guys were the ones who had the finishing blow." Knuckles said.

"You were the ones who did the work." Titania stated. "We are not going to take any credit."

"Why's that?" Tails asked.

"We are the most powerful chao in all of the gardens…"

"Save the traitor." Oberon stated under his breath.

"But now, it is time to give you your reward." Titania stated.

"We shall throw you… a feast." Oberon replied. He clapped his hands and a bunch of chao came and pick the group up and took them away to the chao palace. The palace was a fortress in chao's sight but was the size of a normal house for Sonic's group.

The group was placed at a palm wood table with comfortable chairs. The king and queen sat at the end of it. On the table was the largest variety of fruits, vegetables, and meats anyone can ask for.

"We've got so much food." Titania stated. "You can eat and drink to your heart's content." Some chao came out and filled the glasses of the heroes.

"You're the guests of honor." Oberon replied.

"What do we do now?" Sonic asked.

"Well, we can't let the food go to waste." Knuckles said. "So let's dig in." Thus Sonic and the crew had their fill at the table of the royals. They were also entertained by the chao musicians. The group were treated like nobles at the feast. During the time, Sonic talked with them.

"So, what do you do around here?" he asked.

"Oberon and I are the royals of the chao." Titania stated. "It is our duty to protect the chao and the gardens for they are all the gardens interconnected."

 _"So, is it like some sort of network?"_ Tails thought.

"For this reason, we can't leave the gardens." Oberon stated. "We have absolutely no power outside of the gardens anyway."

"I know how that feels." Knuckles added. Then, he noticed that on one of the bottles was a chaos emerald that was red in color. It was the lid for one of the bottles. "Hey, there's one of the chaos emeralds." The royals looked at it.

"You want it? You can have it. We have no need for it."

"Thanks." Knuckles went over there and picked it up. He seemed to notice that the chao were trying to avoid being near the chaos emerald but didn't think anything of it.

Then a while later, Sonic looked outside and noticed that there was a violet moon outside. He was stunned. He turned to the king.

"Excuse me," Sonic answered. "We have to leave."

"Do what you must." Oberon said. "Just know that you and your friends are welcome to come anytime.

"Thanks for the feast." Sonic said. He turned to his friends. "Okay, guys. Let's head home." He saw Tails over on the table. "What's wrong, Tails?"

"I have a stomach ache." Tails said. "I've never had this much food."

"Don't worry, buddy. You'll feel better." Sonic said. He turned towards Knuckles. He and Bunnie were in a co-ed dance. "It's time to go."

"Aww." Knuckles answered.

"Don't worry, Knux." Bunny said. "At least, we had a good time." Sonic looked around.

"Where's Amy?" Sonic asked. Then, Amy came up to him with her arms outstretched on her sides. She was super-giggly as she leapt and glomped Sonic.

"Sonec." Amy stated holding him tight. "Please, always be with me. Alllllllllways." She was smiling at him in a funny manner as Sonic noticed she was blushing. "hic" She nuzzled herself on Sonic's chest.

"She helped herself on the strawberry mead." Titania said. "We didn't think it would have any effects on mobians."

"Sonec, pleeeeeease marry me." Amy said with passion in her eyes.

"Eh… you're rushing things." Sonic broke out from her grip and she began to chase him around the palace.

"You're playing h-h-h-hard to get, Sonec." Amy giggled trying to keep up with him. "But you always say you godda go fast."

"But not that fast, Amy." Sonic continued, feeling rather uncomfortable.

"But… Itsooooo right."

"We have to wait on that."

"Please l-l-l-love me, Sonec!" Then, she collapsed and went to sleep on the floor.

"We'll send some chao to help you home." Oberon said.

"Thanks." Sonic replied. Thus, the party returned home towards Knothole.


	12. Into the Underworld

Into the Underworld

Sonic was on the phone with Sally. They had to stop in Knothole because of the time of night and they weren't able to get back to Soleanna.

"Sonic, where are you?" Sally asked.

"We ended up looking for a chao garden near Knothole." Sonic replied.

"I thought that was only a legend."

"We found out they are indeed real."

"I see." Sally answered. "Well, we have a job for you guys."

"What is it?" Sonic asked.

"It's nothing big. I got a call from Gryf and he has a massive problem with the underground city."

"Is it an invasion force of some sort?"

"They have a stink problem inside the city and the scent has become unbearable. He wants the team to go in there and clean out the stench." Sally said. "With all the harsh battles as of recent, I thought an easy assignment would be nice for a change."

"Very well, I'll just make sure to bring the clothes pins."

"See you later." Sally then hung up the communication. Amy stumbled out into the room. She was holding her head.

"Ugh, my head." Amy said.

"Are you okay, Amy?" Sonic asked.

"I'm a little ill, but I'll be okay. What happened last night?"

"We went to the chao garden and had a feast with the royals."

"Oh yeah, that's right." Amy responded. "It's just a giant blur in my mind."

"Are you up to a cleaning mission?" Sonic asked. "Sally asked us to do one."

"Okay." Amy answered. "I should be able to do one."

"We'll be cleaning up the underground city."

"I've never been there." Amy added.

"Tails, Bunnie, and I know." Sonic replied.

"Lead the way." She answered as the two started to head off.

The group headed down through the new entrance of the Underground City. It remained primarily underneath Robotropolis since it had been during the occupation of Robotnik. Gryf already had the folks evacuate to let Sonic and his team work.

"Geez," Sonic said. "It smells worse than a month old cheesy chili dog that been left out in the sun down here."

"I can tell." Tails replied trying to cover his nose. "Do we have our communicators?"

"Check." Bunnie stated.

"Good." Amy said.

"Ready when you are." Knuckles said.

"Let's rock and roll." Sonic shouted. Then, the group split up into three. Sonic and Tails went in one direction, Amy and Bunny went in another direction, and Knuckles went by himself. Sonic and Tails wandered through the streets of the underground city. Tails was getting nervous and remained close to Sonic.

"What's wrong, little buddy?" Sonic asked.

"I know the city is empty," Tails replied. "But it feels like someone is going to jump out and scare you."

"I'm sure you're just imagining things."

"Aren't you fazed by the eerie feeling of the abandoned city?"

"Relax, Tails." Sonic reassured. "There isn't anything that is going to harm us."

Meanwhile, Amy and Bunnie were resting from the search. They currently haven't found the source of the rotten stench.

"I'm getting worried about the guys." Amy said.

"What makes you say that?" Bunnie asked.

"I was talking to Gryf earlier before entering the abandoned city." Amy said. "There was a legend about someone else being in the city before it was built."

"Who would that be?"

"Mammoth Mogul."

"Who's he?"

"He is a powerful sorcerer, but now is one with the dead." Amy explained. "I'm worried because I sense not only a rotten stench but also sense death as well here."

"Do you know exactly where he is?" Bunnie asked.

"No, but it rumored to be near an odd barrier."

Knuckles was out and about checking high and low. At that moment, he came across a strange wall. He went up to it to examine it and he heard moaning from the other side.

 _"There are others trapped on the other side."_ He thought. _"I have to get them out of there."_ He used his fingers to trace the wall and found its weak spot. Then, he smashed the wall open by striking that spot. "Pwww. I'm very close to the source." He turned on his communicator.

"Hey, can anyone here me?" Knuckles said.

"I hear you." Sonic said. Amy and Bunnie picked this up.

"I think I'm really close to the source of the stench. It's by the south side of the city, on the other side of a…" Knuckles explained but was interrupted by a large moan. "Okay, what's going on?" There was more moaning. "Hello, ugly." There was a roar. "So you guys, want to fight? Bring it." The four of them didn't hesitate to rush to help Knuckles.

As they were moving into the area, they heard moaning and wailing. Tails was now terrified. When the four met up to help Knuckles, they saw a group of mobians shuffling towards them. They were completely dried out and they look half-decayed. One was missing an eye, one was missing his forearm, and another had its intestines exposed.

"What are those thing?" Tails asked now paralyzed with fear.

"Those…" Amy said. "are zombies."

"I can take these out, no problem." Sonic said walking forward. He did a spindash forwards and knocked down all the mobian zombies. "See no sweat."

"Spoke too soon, sugarhog." Bunnie added seeing the zombies are getting back up.

"That always works against cannon fodder." Sonic said.

"We need to find dreadboy and fast." She answered in a worried look. As they retreated to found Knuckle, he was terrified.

"There you are Knucklehead." Sonic said.

"I'm doomed!" Knuckles cried out.

"Doomed what do you mean?"

"I was fighting those zombies and I ended up getting bitten by one." Knuckles explained. "I'm gonna turn die and turn into a zombie. Please guys, smash my head open so I'll at least die knowing I'll stay with you until the end." The four looked at him and each other.

"Uh Knuckles," Bunnie asked. "You do know that only happens in the movies, right?"

"What?" he asked. "I thought that actually is the case." She looked him over.

"You've been watching way too much TV, Dreads." She remarked. "But you are going to need to get that bite treated. I don't want it getting infected."

"Let's get out of here, so we don't get bitten." Tails stated.

"We'll need some place safe." Amy said pointing to an old house. They headed into the house and Amy started to look over the bite.

"Why are you looking over the bite?" Bunnie asked. "I'm the medic here."

"I have to first check to see if it ended up being a necromantic bite or not." Amy said.

"What's the difference?"

"The difference is that a necromantic bite cannot be treated without a psychic or a mage and is lethal." Amy said. "Fortunately, this is not such a bite."

"Since you know about this stuff, what do you know?" Sonic asked her as Bunnie went to treated Knuckles' wound.

"I know zombies are not a natural occurrence." Amy explained. "They can only be made by a necromancer

"So, you are saying we are facing a necromancer?" Bunnie asked her looking towards Amy and not what she is doing.

"Oww." Knuckles stated flinching.

"Oh sorry, dreads." Bunnie said

"We have to be extremely careful." Amy continued. "They use shadow magic to create and control undead."

"Shadow magic?" Sonic asked.

"Very wicked and malevolent magic." Amy replied as Bunnie finished with the treatment on Knuckles.

"There that should do it." She said as she wrapped the bandage around Knuckles.

"Let's kick this necromancer's tail end." Knuckles said pounding his fists together.

"But what about the zombies?" Tails asked.

"Do we have to smash their skulls?" Knuckles asked.

"Not the most effective method, but yes you can kill a zombie by smashing its brain." Amy said.

"But note that the zombies relies on its necromancer for its stability. In other words, no necromancer, no zombies." Knuckles raised his hand. "What is it, Knuckles?"

"What part of the body is the zombie's favorite?" he asked. Amy didn't know how to react to the question.

"I don't know." Amy asked. "Brains, I think."

"I knew it. I knew that zombies would go after brains." He stated with glee. Sonic stood up.

"Can we get going already?" Sonic asked. "Who knows how many zombies would reach the surface if we sit and do nothing."

"You're right, Sonic. The sooner we defeat the necromancer the better." Amy said.

"We have to stick together to avoid being picked off by the undead." Sonic added as they snuck out of the house and into the hole in the wall Knuckles had made.

The caverns blocked by the wall were very dark and damp. It's become very cold inside the area as well as the team were blind while traversing the cave.

"It's so dark in here." Tails said.

"I can barely see a thing in here." Sonic stated. "I did find something soft. Maybe it can help us out." Then, they heard a bonk. "Ow."

"DON'T TOUCH ME THERE!" Amy shouted.

"I'm sorry, Amy." Sonic said. "I didn't think you were there."

"Can somebody do something here?" Bunnie asked.

"I could produce a psychic flame." Amy explained. "It can't give off heat, but it can produce light."

"Well, make it alright!" Knuckles shouted. Amy was able to make a pink colored spectral flame in her hand. The flame itself could light up the area around the group and about 2 feet from them.

"Got it." She stated.

"I have guests." A deep voice said.

"Who said that?" Tails asked.

"Come this way." The voice repeated. Then, torches on the wall lit up with green flames and an ominous aura filled the room. "Come closer." Then, Amy's pink flame suddenly went out. "You won't be needing that. Follow the flames."

The group walked forwards rather slowly to not get jump-scared along the way down the path. Amy could felt an aura of evil as they walked. Eventually, they arrived at a large room at the end was a chair. There was a pale ivory mastodon sitting in the chair wearing a black cloak on its body. His flesh was half-decayed and green flames where his eyes are supposed to be. His staff had a skull on the end of it.

"There you are." The creature said.

"So, you're Mammoth Mogul." Amy said.

"You are correct." He answered. "Now that you found me, I will send my warriors to fight you." Then, he raised his staff and a green energy came out. Five zombies rose from the ground and began to advance towards the group.

Sonic spindashed knocking some to the ground. Knuckles ran forwards smashing one of their heads. Amy used her hammer to whack a zombie to the ground and turned to smack another one. Tails flew up and blasted one of them with his blaster.

"Why do you still resist? The Penders Plague gave me so many bodies to work with." Mammoth Mogul said as he rose five more zombies.

One of them slashed towards Bunnie. She dodged multiple slash attempts before kicking it away. Sonic spindashed going right through the zombie. Bunnie was looking away as the upper half of it crawled towards her. He was able to grab her leg and bite; however, her legs were cybernetic and it didn't have any effect. She stomped on its head.

The group fought off the zombies that Mammoth Mogul summoned to face them. Although most of them were echidnas. After this, he stood up from his chair.

"I have become bored and irritated." He stated. "The five of you can't beat me, though 50 to 65 mobians should do the trick. Not like you'll time for that." He summoned four more zombies. Then, leapt forward onto the field.

"We'll beat you, Mammoth Mogul."

"Besides, you look hideous for a mammoth." Knuckles said.

"I'm actually a mastodon, but that's beside the point." He said. "And I may be hideous, but after spending years in the cold ground, you'll be begging to join me." Mogul raise his staff and shot out a green blast of energy. Amy dodged out of the way.

She rushed towards him and the two parried each others' melee attacks. Sonic came trying to spinball him from the side but slightly missed him. He tore his black cloak and it exposed the cyan chaos emerald embedded in his chest.

Knuckles had grabbed two of the zombies' heads and slammed them together breaking them open. Bunnie kicked away the one that was right behind Knuckles. That zombie fell to the side and Tails shot him getting his first headshot.

Sonic and Amy tried to go for the chaos emerald, but each time they tried Mammoth Mogul blocked their attempts. Mogul just laughed.

"Try as you might." He stated.

"Amy," Sonic said. "Whack me with your hammer when I'm in morphball."

"Are you sure?" Amy asked

"Yes." Sonic replied.

"I hope you are going to give up." Mogul said.

"Here's a little surprise." Sonic said. He morphballed and Amy whacked him. He went flying towards Mammoth Mogul. Hitting him, he grabbed the chaos emerald and ripped it out. "Got it."

Mogul roared from what had happened. He tried to grab the chaos emerald from Sonic as the flesh was flaking off his body, but Sonic jumped back towards Amy out of reach. He moved forward and collapsed. Everything about him save the cloak and staff turned into dust. The remaining zombies collapsed as well with all the flesh and guts turning to dust as well.

"That takes care of the zombies." Amy said.

"Yeah." Knuckles replied and he sniffed the air. "Hey, that stink is gone too."

"I guess we completed our mission." Sonic said. "And got a chaos emerald out of it too. So, how many do we have now?"

"If I remember correctly, I think we have six chaos emeralds now." Tails answered.

"That means we have one more to go. Let's get out of here and back to Soleanna to report our success."

"Right behind you." Tails said as the group left the catacombs.


	13. Attack on Metropolis

Attack on Metropolis

Eggman was in his office when he asked for Metal Sonic to be summoned there. Within a couple of moments, Metal Sonic arrived.

"You wished to talk to me?" Metal Sonic asked.

"Yes." Eggman replied. "I wanted to talk to you about my ultimate project."

"What about it?"

"As you know, it will grant me more power." Eggman made a fist. "With it I can reclaim all of the lands the Robotnik Empire had…" He thought for a second. "And maybe even more."

"There is a little thing. You said it needs chaos emeralds and you haven't been aggressive on getting them. Who knows how many the enemy has."

"It only needs one to get started and I know where it is. In Metropolis which I made from Robotropolis."

"What makes you so sure?" Metal Sonic asked in disbelief.

"I remember my late uncle getting possession of the chaos emerald." Eggman explained. "He, then, stored it in a safe place where none of the freedom fighters would ever find it."

"Do you know where it is?"

"I intend to find it."

"Robotnik, allow me to fetch the chaos emerald for you." Metal added.

"No, I'll retrieve the emerald personally. But I do have a job for the Quintuple S Squad."

"And what is that?"

"The information that a chaos emerald is in Metropolis will surely bring Sonic and his group of friends to the location. I want you to lead the squad there and launch and ambush upon their arrival to by me time to get the emerald."

"Wouldn't it be easier if they didn't find out?" Metal Sonic asked.

"It will give the opportunity to finally have a victory over the hedgehog." Eggman stated. "Now go, the final project needs finished." Metal Sonic left the room. "It's time to set the end game in motion."

Uncle Chuck was up by a blackboard and Knuckles was at his desk. Charles was giving lessons to Knuckles on history.

"Now, you need to understand the importance of Soleanna." Charles said. "The reason why we moved to Soleanna was before the multi-generational Great War, Soleanna was the old capital of West Side Island. But when it broke out with its three skirmishes, the capital was moved to Mobotropois because it was more fortified than Soleanna."

"Okay…" Knuckles said seeming to nod.

"During this time, Soleanna fell out of use and into ruin. But after Robotnik's fall, Princess Sally had come back and made this current city the capital once again for she and everyone else saw Robotropolis as all of the failures of the past." Charles noticed that Knuckles was dozing off. "Knuckles?" Knuckles woke up.

"Hey, I wasn't sleeping in class."

"I never said you were." He replied. "Have a nice nap?" Knuckles, then, felt uneasy.

"I wanted to know more about the Penders Plague."

"Oh yes, I remember that." Uncle Charles said with a sad sigh. "The Penders Plague epidemic broke out during the Third Skirmish of the Great War. It spread across the land and many mobians died from the disease. Studies saw the disease was so painful that some who were infected took their own lives to make the pain stop."

"That's scary." Knuckles answered feeling more uneasy.

"There was a temporary armistice in response to deal with the plague. When it started to spread into human lands, those nations but the mobian lands under quarantine to prevent further infection. Even to this day, no one knows how the illness showed up."

"I see."

"Even the King of South Island was a victim to the plague or was he killed in battle during the war? There is still debate on what happened to him." Charles answered in sorrow. "Anyway, let's get back to the lesson." Then, Antoine entered the room, rushing in.

"Charles! Charles!" Antoine stated.

"Antoine, what is it? We're in the middle of a lesson." Charles stated, a little frustrated.

"My scouts had reported some shocking news." Antoine explained.

"It better not be from the tabloids again." Charles said. "The last time something like that came out, Rotor wasn't able to leave his house for a whole month from embarrassment. At least, we got everything straightened up from that incident."

"Nonono, sir." He replied. "They have smashed some Eggman robots and they were carrying a message." That got the elderly hedgehog's attention.

"Go on." Chuck said.

"It was going to Eggman that the chaos emerald is in the middle of Robotropolis." Antoine answered.

"That's right in the seat of the Robotnik's power!" Charles said. "We have to send our golden boys out there and get it before Eggman gets that emerald." Knuckles raised his hand.

"So, does this mean class dismissed?" Knuckles asked

"Yes. Now, hurry and get going. There's no time to waste." Chuck said.

Sonic and the crew rushed out to Robotropolis as fast as their feet can take them, with Tails Knuckles Amy and Bunnie behind him. They were frantically heading the way of the location. They were reaching the entrance of the zone. Metal Sonic and his team were stationed there waiting for them. He held up a button while the five were concealed.

"Wait for it." Metal Sonic stated to his crew as the five approached. "Wait for it." Then, Sonic's team passed them and Sonic and his buddies didn't notice them. That's when Metal pushed the button. Various mechanisms activated that tossed some of Sonic's team over and knocked others down. "Move, Move, Move!"

"Move?" Grounder asked.

"Yes." Metal answered

"Go where?" Scratch asked in turn.

"Just attack already!" Zero shouted.

Then, the five of them charged towards the group while they were getting back up. Team Sonic faced the oncoming adversaries.

"It's Metal." Sonic answered.

"Thus we meet again, Sonic…" Metal answered. "for the last time."

"Not today, metalhead."

Sonic leapt towards Metal with a spin dash while he dodged out of the way. Metal replied with a similar attack and Sonic dodged it. Both of them had combat similar to this.

Grounder charged towards Knuckles as he got up. Knuckles punched him in the face knocking him back. Then, the robot dug into the ground.

"Oh, you're just going to hide in the dirt?" Knuckles asked. "Why don't you come up and fight?" Then, Grounder came up from underneath him poking his rear end. Knuckles jumped up in pain holding on to his painful dariair.

"Want a digging battle?" Knuckles answered as he dodged out of the way. "You're going to pay for that." Grounder dug into the ground and Knuckles followed him into the ground to do battle with him.

Tails faced off against Coconuts. Tails pulled out his blaster made from the buzz bomber tail and began to open fire on the monkey bot. Coconuts in turn dodge out of the way of the blasts. He entered a tree for cover. After climbing up, he began to lob orange grenades at Tails.

"They don't call me coconuts for nothing." The bot shouted.

"I can see that." Tails replied.

Zero advanced towards Amy with his big arms raised in the air and he slammed them into the ground creating a shockwave of energy. Amy jumped out of the way, pulling out her hammer. She started swinging it to beat down Zero as he lashed out his arms and fired his laser.'

Bunnie punched and kicked towards Scratch. He dodged out of the way doing flips as he dodged. He responded with his own techniques in response to Bunnie's maneuvers but she could dodge them as well.

Meanwhile, Eggman was looking through the interior of Metropolis, primarily the quarters where he and Julian used to live. He had a flashlight in his hand looking in the old part that didn't have power in it. He was looking through the files in the computers for any clue that could lead to the chaos emerald.

"Nothing." He stated. "I know a chaos emerald is here." Then, he approached the room of his late uncle. It was a very nice bedroom compared to the bedroom he got. His uncle got the fancy bedroom while Eggman had to sleep in a military style bunk which he in turn had Knuckles sleep in as well. "This is like every time I had to do the chores." He went about some of the clothes his uncle Julain left on the ground. "He always make me clean up his messes instead of cleaning up after himself." He put the clothes away in the proper drawers. "And he would always shove the same message down my throat to never open the…" He paused. "Wait, could it be?" He opened up the underwear drawer and shuffled through it. "I FOUND IT!" He shouted as he pulled out the white chaos emerald.

At that moment, Sonic was beaten and on the ground. Metal Sonic had his organic counterpart at his feet as he stared down at him with his cold, steel eyes.

"Don't bother asking for mercy, Sonic." Metal stated to him. "For I will show none to you." He placed his foot on Sonic's head. "Say goodbye, Sonic." Then, he heard a beep on his communicator. "Oh, now what!?" He turned his attention away from Sonic to answer.

"I have the chaos emerald." Eggman stated. "Initiate the retreat order."

"But sir, I have Sonic right where I want him." Metal stated.

"I have given you orders to retreat and I expect your loyalty to me."

"Sir, I can't agree with your orders."

"Are you defying against me?" Eggman rebuked. "Come back now, or I will have you dismantled." Metal Sonic growled and turned back to Sonic. He pointed at his beaten adversary.

"Consider yourself lucky, Sonic." Metal answered to him. "You will have gotten away from your demise this time, but mark my words, I will destroy you with my own hands in time." He turned for the other badniks in his squad. "Badniks, retreat."

The Quintuple S Squad had turned tail to fall back. As they passed Tails, the young fox pulled out a tracking device. He was able to attach it to Grounder without the bot noticing.

"There." He thought. "At least, we'll know where they're heading to." Amy ran over to Sonic.

"Sonic!" Amy shouted. She helped Sonic get back up on his feet. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Sonic replied with a sigh.

"We've got them on the run." Knuckles stated. "Let's take them…"

"Forget it, Knuckles." Sonic answered.

"WHAT!?" he rebuked.

"Let's just go." Sonic replied to him. He started to limp back towards Soleanna. The other four followed him back.

When they got back to Soleanna in the evening, they reported what had happened at Metropolis. Sonic went back to his room. But since he was moving very slow. Bunnie, Tails, and Sally went to Sonic's room in an attempt to cheer him up. During this time, Amy met up with Knuckles. She noticed him moving around practicing some moves. She just sat back to just watch him.

"Sonic has been acting strange." she said.

"Is he still upset?" Knuckles asked as he continued his form.

"He's been moping since we got back from Metropolis." Amy replied. "I've gotten worried about him, and Uncle Chuck isn't around. He's on a diplomatic mission to South Island."

"I think Sonic will be able to get back up on his feet shortly." Knuckles answered. "He's that kind to be resilient. I hope." There was a brief period of silence before Amy spoke again.

"Don't mind me asking but what exactly are you doing?" she asked.

"I'm practicing the 24 forms." He answered. "I know several different style of combat and I need to practice each style. Ivo was a fan of action films especially those in Chun-nan cinema. That's why he had me train in different combat styles."

"Oh, okay." She remarked.

Meanwhile, Sonic was sitting in the quarters on the bed. Sally, Tails, and Bunnie were by his side conversing with him.

"I just don't think I can do this anymore." Sonic said.

"Sonic, you got to snap out of this." Sally rebuked. "This isn't yourself talking. The Sonic I know would never say such things."

"But I was almost killed by Metal Sonic." He answered with a sigh. "Maybe, I'm not the hero I was supposed to be."

"Sugarhog," Bunnie stated. "You're definitely a hero."

"Name something I did to help." Sonic answered. Sally and Bunnie had to think for a little bit. Then, suddenly Tails thought of it.

"Look at Knuckles and Amy." Tails explained. "If you weren't there, Knuckles would still be with Eggman. And who knows where Amy would be right now, maybe Eggman's prisoner."

"Remember, you've saved the wolf pack from disaster. You saved the chao from being kidnapped." Bunnie answered.

"And remember, Sonic, when the two of us destroyed Robotnik once and for all on that one day." The Princess added with a look of concern on her face. "That is the Sonic I know and I want that Sonic back. That is the Sonic I still care about." Sonic stood up after thinking for a while.

"Okay, that loss was probably…" he said. The three was anticipating his answer. "It was just dumb luck. I'll get him next time around."

"That's more like it." The princess stated with a smile.

"The problem is I don't know where he is." Sonic answered.

"I set a tracking device on Grounder. He hangs around with that squad with Metal Sonic." Tails said. "So wherever that tracking device is, Metal will be somewhere nearby. Plus there is a microphone on the tracker too. So, we'll hear any information the bot is picking up." Then, Rotor came in.

"Princess, I've found you." Rotor stated. "I've located the tracking device and listened to the recordings. You need to hear these!" He began to play back the recordings.

 _"Greeting, my Super Special Sonic Search & Smash Squad." Eggman said in the recording. "Today is an auspicious day for we have achieved victory."_

 _"It didn't feel like a victory for me." Metal Sonic stated._

 _"Hush right now, Metal. You'll be able to crush Sonic in time." Eggman rebuked Metal. "With the chaos emerald in hand, we will finally be able to power my latest weapon."_

 _"What's this weapon, your rottenness?" Scratch asked._

 _"Is it an ultra-powerful laser that comes out of a toaster?" Grounder asked._

 _"No, you nincombots." Eggman replied. "It is my mobile weapon station, the Death Egg. With it I will finally be able to have enough power to reclaim all lands the Robotnik Empire controlled… And possibly more."_

 _"Yeah, yeah, let's get started." Coconuts said. "We'll start the party."_

 _"Hold it, Coconuts." He answered in counter measure. "We have to have the Death Egg charge up overnight. By morning it will be fully operational and Mobius will be ours." Rotor stopped the recordings._

"We got to do something fast." Princess stated.

"I was able to locate the source of the recording." Rotor stated. "It is along the coastline of the Emerald Hills." Then, the princess turned to Sonic.

"Sonic, we need you and your team to head to the Death Egg and prevent it from taking off." Sally answered.

"Let me get the team together." Sonic answered. Then, Amy and Knuckles came in.

"You don't have to worry, Sonic." Amy said. "Rotor informed us."

"There is one thing that Eggman doesn't know about the chaos emeralds." Knuckles said.

"I thought you told everything about the chaos emeralds to Eggman." Sonic stated.

"There was one thing I forgot to mention to him." He explained. "That if you combined the seven chaos emeralds, the user would get a huge amount of power for a relatively short period of time."

"So, you are saying to use his own power source against him?" Sonic asked.

"That's exactly what I'm saying." Knuckles said.

"I guess you're smarter than you look, Knucklehead." He remarked.

"Yeah… hey, wait a minute."

"Guys, let's get going." Tails said. "We'll talk about this later. Right now, we need to take down Eggman."

"I will alert the others about the situation." Sally answered. "I wish the five of you luck and godspeed." Thus, Team Sonic was sent out as soon as it was midnight; they started heading to the location where the tracker would lead them.


	14. Sonic BOOM!

Sonic BOOM!

It was the middle of the night as Sonic and his team were in the Emerald Hills. He had the six chaos emeralds they gathered all in Sonic's pack. They were close to the coastline closing in on their target location using the stars as a guide. In the distance they saw their target, the Death Egg. It looked like a giant version of Eggman's head; being close to the size of a mountain.

"Whoa, that is a huge station." Amy said.

"The Doomsday Project was even bigger than this." Bunnie remarked.

Meanwhile, they noticed that Sonic had stopped on the coastline. Tails looked toward him and he noticed Sonic was just looking out over the horizon.

"Uh, hello. Mobius to Sonic. Can you answer?" Tails said.

"Oh, what?" Sonic answered.

"You were just staring out into space. What's up with you?" Tails remarked.

"Just something that happened a long time ago happened here." Sonic said.

"Well, can you tell me?" He asked.

"Very well, we'll take a break and I'll tell you, guys what happened." Sonic replied. They decided to sit down only to hear what Sonic had to say before continuing with the mission. "Uncle Chuck and I were there at Mobotropolis for the celebration for the end of the great war. When the Robotnik coup happened, Rosie had managed to smuggle me back to South Island. At the time, I wasn't able to return to my mom. I was sent to live with my Grandpa Paulie and his wife, Brenda."

"Oh?" Bunnie stated. "What was he like?"

"He was a pilot and a veteran of the Great War." Sonic explained. "He would usually tell stories on the missions he went on and some of the dogfights he was in." Sonic explained. "They called him 'Roly Poly' back during the war. But was then retired and he was always had a sense for adventure."

"I see." Tails answered. "So, what happened?"

"I would usually go on flights with him when he delivered mail in his plane." Sonic added. "But one day, we were flying to West Side Island. We were over there in the distance." He pointed to where he was looking.

 _A bright red biplane was flying above the water. Paulie, an older blue hedgehog with a five o' clock shadow, was in the front seat driving the plane. He was wearing a natural-colored leather jacket. Sonic, himself, was in the back seat._

 _"I've heard that you haven't been to West Side Island since the Robotnik coup." Paulie said. "I wondered why you begged to come with me."_

 _"I remembered I met Sally, Antoine, Bunnie, and Rotor over here; I have tried to send them letters but they have never responded." Sonic replied._

 _"From what you said to me, I'm sure they'll be alright." Paulie stated._

 _"How can you be so sure?" Sonic asked him in confusion._

 _"You can call it a leap of faith." He responded._

 _"Do you ever think that Robotnik's occupation ever end?" Sonic asked._

 _"I'm probably sure it will day." Paulie replied calmly to Sonic. "But you got to remember Sonic, I won't always be here. During that time, you will have to be strong and full of courage." He held out a pinkie to Sonic. "You promise me, Sonic." Sonic reached out with his pinkie and hooked it._

 _"I promise, grandpa." Sonic returned. They unhooked and Sonic looked away to the waters below. Then, there was a flash of light and a loud boom. The plane shook violently. "Gramps, what's going on!?" He looked forward; to his horror, he saw his grandpa was struck by something and the plane's engine was ablaze. "GRAMPS!" The plane spiraled down, then crashed into the sea below._

 _Sonic was unable to rescue his grandpa from the crashing plane and was forced to leave the crash site. He was able to make it to the shore in the Emerald Hills. He didn't have time to rest, for he saw some swatbots approaching him._

 _"Freeze, mobian." One of the two swatbots stated. "You are under arrest." And they attempted to capture Sonic; he ran from them and was able to hide in the Great Forest. Later on, as he wandered through the woods._

" _Oh no," he thought. "First, I lose my grandpa. Then, I get attacked by swatbot. And now, I'm lost in this stupid forest. What's next, it starts to rain?" He noticed it was starting to rain. "Just my luck. Well, I better find a place to hide so I won't get rained on." He looked around and noticed a hallow log. "Not very ideal but it'll do." Sonic jumped into the log and he was surprised to see it was a slide. He shouted as he slid down it and landed in a pile of straw. "Oph." He looked around know seeing a village. "Now, where am I?"_

Sonic sighed from grief but stood up. His friends wandering if he was even stable for something like this. Metal Sonic who was wandering outside happened to find them.

"Stop right there." Metal shouted, shining a light at them. "You aren't going anywhere."

"Not this time, Metal." Sonic rebuked him.

"So, you're back for more." Metal mocked Sonic with a chuckle. "You've tried every move against me and you have failed to defeat me."

"There's one move I haven't tried." Sonic remarked as he dashed to him. Metal raised his hands to block what he thought was a spin dash. Then, Sonic kicked him in the crotch.

"OOOOIIIII!" Metal shrieked loudly in a girly sounding voice. "My sensors." He fell over holding the struck area.

"GO!" Sonic shouted and the whole group rushed towards the Death Egg. Metal Sonic reached for the communicator.

"Doctor Robotnik…" Metal said. "Sonic's going."

They entered the docking station right as the door behind them was closing. Then, a swarm of badniks came out to greet them.

"I've never seen this many badniks in my life." Bunnie said.

"I have." Knuckles replied. "It's not very pretty."

"How many are there?" Amy asked.

"If I'm thinking correctly…" Tails noted. "About 250."

"250 badniks vs the five of us?" Sonic added. "Eh, sounds pretty even." Sonic hunkered down. "Up, over, and out." He spindashed right into the whole swarm. He disoriented the halves and destroyed ten of the badniks.

Moto bugs came up towards the group. Amy picked up her hammer and started smashing away at the bots that were coming their way. Meanwhile, some rollers approached them from the right side. Tails pulled out his pistol and began to shoot them. Some of them opened up and opened fire on them. Tails took cover behind a nearby pillar while Bunnie and Knuckles dodged to the side thus preventing the rollers from getting a good shot at them.

Knuckles and Bunnie came across some bots that were mantis-shaped. They threw their blades at Knuckles. He moved letting the blades pass by him while Bunnie had to dodge out of the way. When the bots were defenseless. He rushed forward and smashed their face open with his punches.

Bunnie encountered some of the old school swatbots. She used her legs to knock them to the ground. She struck back as they were trying to get back up from being on the ground. She saw some buzz bombers heading her way. He ripped one of the swatbot's head off and threw it at them destroying a few.

As the five of them fought the badniks, the ground was being completely littered with scrap metal and twisted parts.

Sonic bounced of each badnik as he smashed them. He knew that he had to quickly get to the control room to get that last chaos emerald. After going through a few widow bots, he noticed an air vent that can get to his destination. He jumped off of the butterdroids at were approaching him and landed into the vent of the Death Egg.

Tails continued to fight against the rollers firing at them. He saw he was getting flanked by a rhino bot rolling towards him. He ducked out of the way and it slammed into the wall. He blasted the armor off of the robot and used it as a shield. He ran towards the rollers with his blaster firing rapidly taking them down.

Knuckles finished the last of the mantis-bots. Then, some spiked chained tried to strike him from the side. It did manage to hit him.

"Ugh!" Knuckles stated as he turned around. He saw flying egg-shaped robots with a long spiked chain as a tail. "So, want to play rough? I'll give you rough."

One lashed out its tail towards Knuckles. He grabbed the tail, being careful to avoid the spikes, and yanked on it bringing the droid down before smashing the main body open. He ripped the tail off and started using it as a weapon against them.

Bunnie was able to enter a swatbot suit by ripping the circuitry out of it. She, then, used the laser wrist blaster it was equipped with against the badniks that were attacking her. While, Amy used her piko hammer to continue to smash the bots facing her. When, she saw herself cornered she used a psywave to scramble the badniks' wires temporarily to get out of the snag.

Sonic had to get through the maze of air vents as fast as he could. He eventually found himself in the power chamber where the chaos emerald is. He started to approach the emerald.

"You won't be getting that emerald, hedgehog." A voice stated. Sonic turned around and he saw Eggman in a mech. The mech was a walking one with six arms. Four of them had a laser on it, and the last two had bouncing boxing gloves. "You aren't going to be leaving at all."

"We'll see about that Eggman." Sonic replied at him.

"I am certain you won't for the Shiva Suit will take care of you." Eggman rebuked. "Say your prayers, Sonic, for it will be the last thing you do."

The lazers began to fire at Sonic and he dodged out of the way of the beams. Sonic spindashed towards Eggman's mech, he raised his springing boxing gloves and the blue blur bounced off the gloves away from the mech. The giant robot started to walk towards Sonic continuing to fire off the beams of energy. Sonic began to spin around the mech rapidly; Eggman tried to punch the ground opening a spot. Sonic charged at it busting two lasers off. The mech was able to kick Sonic away and he hit a wall hard.

"Urgh!" Sonic groaned as he hit.

"Now, hold still so this is quick." Eggman answered as he fired and Sonic dodged out of the way barely. Sonic moved underneath the legs of the robot. He jumped onto the wall behind the mech as Eggman turned around. Sonic charged and took down the other two lazers.

"Warning, weapon systems down." The computer in the mech stated.

"THAT'S IT HEDGEHOG!" Eggman shouted as he shifted the power over to the spring arms and legs. "NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!" The mech leapt into the air in an attempt to stomp on Sonic; but he missed as Sonic ran across the floor.

" _Boy, I really made him mad."_ Sonic thought. He saw the robot charging at him; seeing Eggman throw a punch, he turned to the left and the punch smashed through a wall. _"Yeah, I did."_

"HOLD STILL, YOU LITTLE RAT!" Eggman stated, seeing Sonic at the emerald stand. He lunged a punch at the hedgehog and he ducked out of the way. He smashed the power charger and the chaos emerald fell right out. Sonic reached for it and got the emerald.

"Yes, I got it." Sonic stated.

"So, you have the emerald. Big deal, it's not like it will do you any good." Eggman answered.

Then, Sonic pulled out the other six. The seven chaos emeralds floated around him. "Okay, so you have all seven chaos emeralds. What are you going to do show the collection off on Twitter?" The colored gems swirled around Sonic faster and faster, getting closer and closer.

Then, there was a great light the emeralds merged with him. He shined with a bright gold hue as sparks of energy flickered of him. Sonic was just floating in mid-air. Sonic looked at himself.

"Holy cow, so this is the power of the chaos emeralds?" Sonic thought. Then, he looked at Eggman and flew towards the mech.

"Oh… SH…!" Eggman said out loud in total shock, his mustache drooping. Sonic completely ripped through Eggman's mech causing it to collapse and spark. He, then, trashed the power room. Eggman got himself out of the wreckage of his fallen suit. He noticed that Sonic was going to destroy the station. "I'm not going to waste any more time. I'm getting out of here."

Eggman ran towards the nearest escape pod and shut the door behind him. He shot the escape pod out to the side for his escape.

As the other four were finishing off the rest of the badniks, they saw several explosions from the outside of the Death Egg.

"WE GOT TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!" Knuckles stated.

"BUT WHAT ABOUT SONIC!?" Amy yelled.

"WE DON'T HAVE TIME! MOVE!" He shouted. Some debris collapsed off the station causing the four to be knocked away from the shock. They had to dodge out of the way of the stray lightning bolts coming off the station in meltdown. Amy did notice as they were fleeing that there was a trail of gold starting to circle the station.

During that time far away, Metal Sonic looked at the Death Egg as it had started to malfunction and being ripped to shreds. Scratch, Grounder, Coconuts, and Zero went to him.

"What are we plan to do?" Zero asked.

"I view that Eggman is a very incompetent leader." Metal Sonic answered them. "Otherwise, this incident wouldn't have happened."

"So, what do you suggest?"

"I say we part ways from Eggman and start as our own group."

"Yeah, yeah. We could be the Super Special Sonic Search & Smash Squad without Robotnik." Coconuts answered.

"No…" Metal rebuked Coconuts. "We are no longer the Quintuple S squad."

"Then, what are we then?" Scratch asked.

"How will others know us by?" Grounder added.

"From this day forward, we shall be known as the Metallix." Metal Sonic proclaimed.

"Affirmative." Zero replied. Then, the five robots left.

Knuckles, Tails, Bunnie, and Amy were a safe distance away as they turned around. They saw the golden blur flying as he left the Death Egg as it exploded. He blasted forwards breaking the sound barrier; he flew over them slowing down. He turned to face them waving; then he returned to normal mid-flight. He faced forward and smacked right into a tree.

"This'll leave a mark." Sonic stated to himself as he slid down the tree. His friends met up with him at the tree.

"Sonic, are you all right?" Tails asked.

"A little beaten but I'm okay." Sonic replied. He ended up spitting a tooth out.

"We did it! We saved the day!" Tails said, as the sun started rising.

"I did most of the work, though." Knuckles said.

"What did you mean most of the work?" Sonic stated, rebuking Knuckles.

"I destroyed 70 of the badniks, so I should get some of the credit." He explained. "You only took down 30."

"You were actually keeping track?" Amy stated.

"Yeah, but I was the one who went in there and destroyed the Death Egg." Sonic remarked back to Knuckles.

"Guys, I don't care who did what or how many badniks y'all smashed." Bunnie stated. "What matters is that we stopped Eggman."

"Yeah, but he got away." Sonic stated. Then, his communicator came online.

"Hello, Sonic?" Sally asked.

"Sal, we did it. We destroyed the Death Egg." Sonic exclaimed.

"Well done, Sonic." Sally stated.

"But Eggman got away." He replied.

"I see." Sally sighed. "Well, come back when…" She paused without turning it off. "Wait, what is it?" She paused. "Are you serious?" She turned back to Sonic. "We have captured Eggman." The five were completely shocked.

"How did that happen?" Knuckles stated. "He would have had some escape pod or something."

"He did." Sally said with a slight chuckle. "But that escape pod got him right in the middle of the Soleanna military training ground. It didn't take much to apprehend him."

"That's wonderful, Sally." Amy said.

"Thanks." She stated. "I'll be awaiting your arrival. Sally, over and out." Then, the communicator shut off.

"Time to head back." Bunnie said.

"Who's up for chili dogs?" Sonic asked.

"Here we go again?" Tails replied as the five headed back to Soleanna…

* * *

END

* * *

In a dark room, a lone red and black buzzard was analyzing the computer screens at various objects. He was wearing a brown coat, some goggles, and black furry hat. Then, a mallard entered the room from behind him. The old buzzard turned to face him.

"What is the status on the janissaries, mallard?" the buzzard asked.

"They are being trained and prepared for battles right on schelude." He replied.

"Excellent." The buzzard answered with glee. "Let our elite squadron forward ahead of us. It will soon be time to visit an old enemy."


End file.
